


Not so oblivious anymore

by Arolla



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrinette, Episode: s03 Oblivio, F/M, Identity Reveal, LadyNoir - Freeform, Marichat, Spoilers, adrienette - Freeform, alternative plot development, breaking love square, ladrien, oblivio rewrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2019-11-28 03:31:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 19,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18202922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arolla/pseuds/Arolla
Summary: Ladybug and Cat Noir have been shot with oblivion bullets. They don't remember who they are, what their superpowers are, what they are for each other... They have to find a way to regain this knowledge, but before they manage to do it, they'll meet some complications...Beware of major spoilers from the "Oblivio" episode!





	1. Oblivion

**Author's Note:**

> This is the story that follows a scenario published by my-miraculous-headcanons.tumblr.com just after the "Oblivio" episode.

„It looks like my name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng…” Marinette muttered gazing on the ID in her hand.  
  
“And my name is apparently Adrien Agreste.” Adrien read on his ID.  
  
They exchanged surprised glances. They still didn’t know anything more. What were they doing here? Did they know each other? And what the hell were those two strange little creatures flying around their heads?!  
  
“Don’t you have _my name_ there? Plagg asked wryly.  
  
“Oh my God! It talks!” Marinette screamed and tripped over her own legs.  
  
Adrien caught her in the last moment before she collapsed on the floor. There was something strangely familiar in his touch, but Marinette didn’t want to think about it right now. She was too panicked by the fact she didn’t remember anything. She didn’t know if she even had a family, where her home was. And who was this boy for her…  
  
“You talk as well and I’m not screaming because of that.” Plagg commented and shook his head in disapproval.  
  
“You could be a little bit nicer!” Tikki cut in. “I don’t remember my name either, but _I can_ behave! Unlike you!”  
  
“You’re right you spotted bug…” Plagg winced. “Unlike me. I feel with all my senses that we both are totally opposite to each other.”  
  
“What are you?” Marinette asked.  
  
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m a super fantastic cat. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation what I’m doing here with you.”  
  
“If it’s logical, we shouldn’t count on you in solving the riddle.” Tikki replied sarcastically. She couldn’t help it. That cat was irritating her.  
  
“I thought you’re nice!” Plagg hissed.  
  
“You called me a bug!”  
  
“Because _you are_ a bug! You have wings and antennas. Definitely a kind of a bug. I assume that a ladybug because of your spots. See? _I can_ think logically!”  
  
Tikki only rolled her eyes and decided to ignore Plagg. Talking to him was pointless. They needed solutions. Quickly! Because Something strange started knocking and kicking the roof of the elevator where they were trapped, as if it wanted to get inside. They had to run away, but Adrien and Marinette were too weak to open the door. Tikki flew closer to help them but before she managed to stop around them, she passed through the door as if it didn’t exist. She was free. So was Plagg, who followed her immediately.  
  
“See?! We’re exceptional!” he said happily. “Unlike them…”  
  
“They need our help!” Tikki insisted. She used her just discovered ability of passing though walls and flew into the mechanism of elevator to unlock the door.  
  
“Thank you!” Marinette smiled gratefully, stepping outside.  
  
Even if she wanted to add something, she had no time for this – the mysterious “Something” broke the roof of the elevator and it was about to attack them. Adrien took Marinette’s hand and suggested:  
  
“Let’s get out of here!”  
  
Seconds later they reached a staircase and ran down as fast as they could. But what could they do if the exit was blocked and Something they couldn’t even define was treading on their heels? They had to hide.  
  
“Let’s sum up!” Marinette said, closing the toilet’s doors behind them. “We’re stuck in a building, with amnesia, being chased by a-a-a thing that obviously has something to us…”  
  
“Not to mention about two strange creatures who magically appeared when our costumes disappeared.” Adrien added.  
  
“Ah, excuse me! But the creatures are hungry!” Plagg cut in. “Could you check what smells sooo good under your shirt?”  
  
Adrien was a little bit surprised when he found a piece of camembert in his pocket. He handed it to the black creature.  
  
“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!” Plagg confessed with tenderness in his voice. Then he ate cheese at once.  
  
Marinette thought that maybe she had something for the other creature as well. She looked quickly in her purse and found a cookie. And something more – something very useful at the moment.  
  
“I’ve got my phone! We’re saved!” she said happily.  
  
Adrien reached to his pockets and found his smartphone as well. Yet, before they shared their complacence, both realised that the smartphones were blocked by a code. The code they didn’t remember.  
  
“Oh no…” they sighed simultaneously.  
  
Suddenly, an approaching noise remembered them about the danger. They went into a cabin to hide, but both knew it was only for a moment. They needed to run away!  
“We have to find an escape.” Marinette said.  
  
Adrien reached for the doorknob to block the door, but the girl stopped him – she knew that this would reveal their hiding place. When their hands met, something strange happened again – like her body remembered something forgotten by her mind. What else could explain goose flesh on her arms? And a blush on her face?  
  
They exchanged glances. Knowing that both were blushed didn’t help at all in finding a way out. Worse, the evil creature hunting for them was closer and closer – checking each cabin. There was no time left for hesitation. They had to go immediately!  
  
Marinette looked around. And suddenly she knew. Just knew. That was weird – knowing something so unusual and being so sure that this was the right thing. And it was so familiar for her.  
  
She acted instinctively – they should escape through a ventilating shaft.  
  
“You seem like someone who always has the right idea at the right time.” Adrien said, and Marinette thought he might be right. But didn’t know why…  
  
“We’ll see…” she whispered.  
  
And no one was more surprised than her when they left the shaft and it turned out they were outside the building.


	2. The Turtle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette talks to her mom by phone, but it doesn't help much. They still don't know who they are. Finally, Marinette gets a brilliant idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers alert :-)

“I have both good news and bad news.” Marinette said hanging up with her mom. “The good news is there are superheroes in the tower that will stop a supervillain. The bad news is _we’re those superheroes_ , and that thing that’s chasing us is a supervillain. And we’re supposed to defeat it with the superpowers we don’t longer have! And we don’t remember how to use them!”  
  
She flopped down to the ground. She didn’t care where she was sitting right now. Even if it was a nasty place in rear of the tower, between some dirty skips.  
  
“Doesn’t sound good…” Adrien muttered, sitting down next to her.  
  
Both got lost in their thought not paying attention to the kwamis, which apparently had an argument about helping kids in dealing with the supervillain. Neither Adrien nor Marinette had any idea what to do next. Adrien’s dad hadn’t answered the phone, Marinette’s mom had panicked as soon as she realised that her daughter had a school trip at the Montparnasse Tower planned for that day. She figured out that Marinette had been probably attacked by the supervillain, which wasn’t so untrue, by the way. However, Marinette lied that she was all right, safe and with a friend. Anything to calm down her mother. In consequence she didn’t manage to get what she called for – a help. All she got was information what were the names of the superheroes and that Adrien was her classmate.  
  
“My own mother doesn’t know that I’m Ladybug…” Marinette whispered in astonishment. “I assume that no one knows then…”  
  
“What about us?” Adrien asked. “Do you think _we know_?”  
  
Marinette looked up at him. Then she took a glance at his phone. There were plenty of Ladybug’s pictures. She checked her phone. She had almost only Adrien’s photos in her gallery.  
  
“It looks like we do.” She admitted and added when a sudden thought occurred to her: “I feel like we’re more than just a superhero team…”  
  
“Then we must have told each other everything.” Adrien smiled warmly at her. “I couldn’t hide my identity from the girl I love.”  
  
Marinette lost her breath. How did he know he loved her? How did _she_ know she loved him? She didn’t remember anything! Yet… Yet she felt with all her senses that she loved him. That was the same feeling as she had had when they were running away through the ventilating shaft. Something natural but apparently subconscious. Did he feel the same way? Was it the reason she couldn’t help but smile back at him?  
  
“That little mean cat left!” Tikki interrupted and ruined the moment.  
  
“For bringing help?” Adrien asked with hope.  
  
“I wouldn’t count on that…” Tikki replied disappointed.  
  
“We need information about our superpowers.” Marinette said. “If my mom couldn’t help us, who would?”  
  
“I have no idea…” Adrien sighed feeling like they were going round in circles.  
  
“Think!” Marinette clapped her hands to motivate herself somehow. “We need a plan. We have to find someone who can help us to get back our memories. I’m sure that we had a teacher or a guide, or a mentor… We had to learn somehow all those things that have been uploaded in the Internet!”  
  
“You have anything on mind?”  
  
“Not a clue…” she admitted, then looked at him in concern and added unsure: “Unless…” she hesitated, and Adrien grinned meaningfully. Riiight, she had no idea… “We could check the Internet. Maybe we’ll find there something?”  
  
Adrien stared at her with appreciation, and she felt warmth on her cheeks. She made herself focus on her smartphone and started looking for media coverage from their last fight. They finally learnt what the supervillain was called. They also discovered that Ladybug had objected to call her and Cat Noir “a couple”. And they could see how Oblivio had shot them with his bullets of oblivion. Marinette noticed that before Ladybug had been shot, she was drawing something on the wall in the elevator. Wait a moment! Something clicked in her head.  
  
“A turtle!” she whispered in astonishment. “Remember? We saw a turtle and a phone on the wall in the elevator!”  
  
“What a graffiti on the wall can have in common with a hint?” Adrien was surprised.  
  
“Look once again.” Marinette rewound the coverage. “See? I took you inside, then I drew something on the wall. I have a lipstick in my hand.”  
  
“Brilliant! You left a message to yourself!” Adrien commented. “But… Who’s the Turtle?”  
  
“I think I saw a turtle when I was looking for a number to my mom.” Marinette reminded herself.  
  
They started scrolling the contact list to find a person with a turtle avatar. They pressed a green button without hesitation. Soon they heard a voice:  
  
“Halo?”  
  
“Uhm… Mr. Turtle?”  
  
“Marinette? Is there a problem?”  
  
“Listen, I can’t remember who I am or who you are. Oblivio erased my memory. But I think I’m supposed to call you.”  
  
“You did the right thing. Is there Cat Noir with you?”  
  
“Uhm… Yes, he is. Actually, it’s Adrien.”  
  
“So, you know your true identities…” Master Fu sighed.  
  
“We’re not supposed to know them?” Adrien asked surprised.  
  
“Never…” Fu began explaining but at that moment Marinette’s phone died.  
  
“Did he say “Never” as one word or as part of a longer word?” Adrien wondered.  
  
“Does it matter?” Marinette was surprised why it was important for him.  
  
“Maybe? If it’s one word, that means we can never learn about our true identities. Maybe because of some rules? But it can be 'Never mind' as well, that could mean that it doesn’t matter if we know about each other or not. So, it doesn’t have to be a secret. At least between two of us.”  
  
“You’re right. But still we don’t know anything more about our superpowers. We need to call Mr. Turtle again.”  
  
“What now?” Adrien asked. Marinette looked at her phone.  
  
“Let’s find a charger.” She smiled finally, and he laughed. The simplest solution. But brilliant.


	3. A scooter ride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette steals a motorbike and makes Adrien wear an old poncho found in trash.

It was the worst scooter ride in their lives. At first, Marinette had had to overcome her feeling reluctant to taking someone’s motorbike, especially after hearing Adrien saying it was literally a stealing. She justified it by a state of emergency. Then she had to persuade Adrien into wearing some ponchos found in a skip. And she almost failed.  
  
“I’m not going to wear these.” He kept saying, staring at his girlfriend while she was putting on one of the ponchos.  
  
“Adrien, please. Stop wasting time for arguing!”  
  
“I still don’t get it, why we need a disguise?”  
  
“A supervillain? Who’s hunting after us? Anything’s familiar?” she suggested ironically, and he blushed.  
  
“But… Marinette…”  
  
“Come on, Adrien! We have no time! It’s just an old poncho!”  
  
“That’s _literal trash_ Marinette. I am not wearing trash.” He said. Even though he didn’t remember anything about his life, his body protested against wearing those rags.  
  
“Trash or not, never mind. I have no time to knit a new poncho for you.”  
  
“You can knit?” Adrien asked in amazement.  
  
She looked at him concerned.  
  
“To be honest, I have no idea. But I feel like it wasn’t difficult, so who knows? Maybe I can?” she whispered, but immediately shook off those thoughts and repeated irritably: “Put it on and stop changing the subject!”  
  
Before he overcame his reluctance, Marinette was ready to go.  
  
“Do you know where we should go?” he asked before they left.  
  
“No idea. I can’t count on my memory, but we know the address, so let’s hope we’ll find it.” She said.  
  
“You’re Ladybug, so let’s count on your luck.” He smiled.  
  
Finding home wasn’t easy, especially when they didn’t know the way. All they had was the address found on Marinette’s ID card. Adrien launched a map on his smartphone, and they finally left the Montparnasse Tower area. They had to be careful, because Oblivio could be anywhere now, so they decided to avoid main streets – just in case.  
  
They got lost only twice. The first one was because they lost the signal in Adrien’s phone between tall buildings. So, they decided to go straight to the Seine first and to start looking for the address when they reached the neighbourhood. But at that moment they noticed a little black spot flying blindly across the streets of Paris. The black spot that was murmuring instantly: “I’m not a coward. I’m not a coward!”  
  
“You know something about it?” Marinette whispered to her purse.  
  
“I _might_ know something…” Tikki admitted remorsefully.  
  
“There he went!” Adrien pointed an alleyway.  
  
Marinette turned there inattentively. And that was the moment they got lost for the second time. Yet, it paid off – they found Plagg, who was staring at one of hundreds of billboards with the newest perfumes campaign with Adrien Agreste’s face.  
  
“Stop making me feel guilty!!!” Plagg shouted. “This is psychological harassment!!!”  
  
“Cat?” Adrien asked quietly, getting off the scooter.  
  
“AAA!!!” Kwami screamed at the sight of the boy. “Leave me alone!”  
  
“I can’t. You have to go with us. You’ll be safer.” Adrien bluffed.  
  
“I’m in danger?” Plagg recovered composure and looked at the boy distrustfully.  
  
“We’ve already got known that it is a supervillain who wants to get me and Marinette. Probably it has something in common with you and your spotted friend.”  
  
“ _She’s not_ my friend!” Plagg replied resentfully. “You have _no idea_ what she was talking to me! And she claimed she’s nice!”  
  
“We’ll deal with that as soon as possible.” Adrien promised. “Come on, maybe we’ll find some delicious camembert for you?” he tried with another benefit.  
  
“Camembert?” Plagg pricked up his ears.  
  
“So? Are you coming?” The boy smiled and opened his shirt to hide kwami.  
  
When he turned back to the scooter, he met Marinette’s eyes full of appreciation. He felt happy. He managed to impress her. So, apparently it worked in both directions.  
  
“Let’s go!” Marinette said when he sat behind her.  
  
Soon they reached the Dupain-Cheng’s bakery. They got off the scooter with relief. When Adrien began taking off the helmet, Marinette stopped him by grabbing his hand.  
  
“The disguise…” she reminded him but lost the thought as soon as their hands met.  
  
What was in his touch that she couldn’t focus? What was in his eyes that she couldn’t gather her thoughts?  
  
“I think we’ll be safe at your home…” he said, putting away his helmet. He turned to her and reached for her helmet: “Can I?” he asked, and when she smiled in approval, he took it off. For a moment they were gazing on each other, as if time stopped.  
  
“The charger!” Tikki squeaked quietly.  
  
“The charger!” Marinette repeated aloud.  
  
“Do you know _where_ it can be?” Adrien asked.  
  
“I assume that it should be in my room.”  
  
“And do you remember where your room is?” he joked, knowing her answer already. She giggled, not trying even to say the obvious _'No'_. “I hope your parents won’t notice us…” he added.  
  
“We have to be extra careful. Be quiet!” she warned him, reaching the door.  
  
“I’ll be quiet as a mouse.” He promised.  
  
“A mouse? Not a cat? You forgot you’re Cat Noir?” she asked teasing.  
  
“Well… Actually, yeah… _I did_ …” he chuckled, and she laughed aloud, going inside.  
  
“Marinette?” they heard above their heads.  
  
They stood face to face with Sabine Cheng.


	4. Not the first kiss, nor the last one

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette and Adrien try to convince Sabine Cheng that they weren't shot by Oblivio, so they act as a typical couple they think they are.

“Can you tell me what you’re doing here? How did you get here?” Sabine asked, frowning.  
  
“Uhm…” Marinette stuttered. She couldn’t confess that she’d stolen a motorbike, two helmets and old ponchos.  
  
“You told me you were stuck inside the Montparnasse Tower. And now I can see you here. Well?”  
  
“We found a back door and managed to escape. My phone died so I couldn’t call you. I have to recharge it immediately. I don’t remember where’s my charger…”  
  
“You don’t remember?!” Mom spotted suddenly concerned. “Is this the supervillain’s fault?”  
  
“No! Of course not!” Marinette laughed nervously, and Adrien joined her, but not too convincing. They exchanged alarmed glances.  
  
“You both look like that Oblivio shot you…” Sabine stated, looking at them carefully.  
  
Adrien acted spontaneously. He took Marinette’s hand with such confidence as if he was doing that all his life. And she intertwined their fingers instinctively, as if it was something natural. Sabine’s eyebrows went up. That was something new. But the most surprising thing was that her daughter, who was usually very shy when it came to Adrien, now was acting quite at ease in his presence. Especially, when Sabine had already become suspicious about the boy some time ago.  
  
“Tom?!” Sabine called her husband and looked back in the bakery.  
  
Marinette took the advantage of mom’s distraction and glanced at Adrien. She felt like they didn’t convince her mother. Actually, they weren’t sure about what they should convince her. If only they knew, how they usually behaved in front of her parents! Maybe now they were too little intimate? Maybe they usually were snuggling all the time? Or maybe their relationship was a secret because Marinette’s dad hated Adrien? Or maybe they pretended to be a platonic couple?  
  
How, for heaven’s sake, could they figure out what to do next, if they couldn’t talk to each other nor read in their minds?!  
  
“Tom!” Sabine repeated urgently.  
  
“What’s up, honey?” they heard from somewhere in the bakery.  
  
“Come here, darling! And take a camera!”  
  
Marinette was about to give up and run away. What were their parents up to? Were they insane? She had a feeling that nothing was normal here.  
  
“A camera?” Tom asked breathless, appearing at the door. “What do you need a camera for, honey?”  
  
Sabine looked meaningfully at kids. Her husband smiled under his breath.  
  
“Got it.” He muttered and disappeared again.  
  
“Mom…” Marinette only whined. “I _really_ have to recharge my phone…”  
  
“Just a minute, darling!” Sabine grinned. “I do have to take a little photo. You’ll thank for this, I promise.”  
  
“Mo-om…”  
  
“Just a second…” Sabine whispered and added over her shoulder: “ _Tom!_ ”  
  
“Here!” Tom handed the camera to his wife. “Just… if you two could take off those terrible ponchos…” he added towards kids.  
  
“With pleasure!” Adrien agreed, taking off the disgusting disguise.  
  
Marinette looked at him with reproach. She noticed sideways a flash and heard mom’s giggle. What a titbit!  
  
“Your turn, Marinette…” Adrien whispered, winking at the girl, then he took off her poncho. Another flash!  
  
“It’s almost done, promise!” Mom said after ten or twenty pictures and smiled slyly. “Just last one… For grandma. A sweet kiss?”  
  
“Sabine!” Tom exclaimed in astonishment, but it was nothing in comparison with the kids’ shock.  
  
“Oh, come on, honey!” Sabine ignored his objections. “We’re not going to pretend that we don’t know what teens are doing nowadays! We were young not so long ago!”  
  
“ _What_ teens are doing nowadays?” Marinette’s dad asked suddenly interested, driving his daughter to despair.  
  
“I’ve heard from Nadja that there is a very popular game amongst teens they called ‘Super Penguino’”.  
  
“ _MOM!_ ” Marinette exclaimed totally embarrassed. She wanted to die immediately.  
  
“I’m just saying what I’ve heard.” Sabine grinned. She had a great time! “And Nadja is journalist, so she always checks her information. All I ask you now is just one sweet photo for grandma. And you can go… uhm… _recharging that phone…_ ” she added meaningfully.  
  
Marinette felt that her palm sweated in Adrien’s hand. The situation got out of control. She couldn’t recall how kissing Adrien looked like. She felt like they were to kiss for the first time. In front of her parents! But she noticed her so-called-boyfriend seemed to be calm. Sure, he was blushed, but looked like kissing her was something familiar to him. He was staring at her so warmly, that she forgot for a moment about playing their roles, about her parents around, and even about the camera…  
  
She felt like everything happened in slow motion. Adrien embraced her and pulled her closer. He didn’t break the eye contact, as if he waited for her permission for this kiss. But she couldn’t find a single reason to object. Her hands went up to embrace his neck. He treated that as the approval he’d asked silently before. So, he leaned in and kissed her gently. As if it was to be the first kiss for him as well…  
  
Marinette had no idea how long they were kissing. There was nothing like she used to feel any time Adrien had touched her before. Then she felt something familiar, as if her body remembered some emotions that her mind forgot. Now, she felt rather euphoria – typical when you do something for the first time…  
  
A flash reminded them where they were. They stepped back and looked at each other a bit dazed. They remembered that the kiss was a part of a roleplay to convince Marinette’s parents that Oblivio hadn’t shot them with his bullets of oblivion. Meanwhile, this little show became quite serious and a fake kiss turned out to be the real one. And both just wanted to kiss again.  
  
“Thank you, darling. Gina will be delighted!” Sabine smiled.  
  
“You won’t send it to grandma, will you?!” Marinette exclaimed.  
  
“Why not?” Mom pretended to be surprised. “ _We all know_ it wasn’t your first kiss, nor the last one, right?”  
  
Marinette wasn’t sure if her mother was serious, or maybe she uncovered them. But it didn’t matter. They had to call Mr. Turtle immediately! So, without hesitation, she took Adrien’s hand and went upstairs. Anything to get away from her parents, who could start talking about kissing techniques any minute! Or, what was worse – about some penguins…  
  
Before they reached the first floor, Marinette glanced sideways and noticed her parents hugged each other and giggled. She heard her father’s question: “What was that about ‘Super Penguino’?”, but she didn’t want to hear her mom’s answer.  
  
She didn’t know that her mother had turned off the flash in the camera for a moment that let her take much more photos, than Marinette thought…


	5. Kitty and His Lady

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien and Marinette try to find the charger. In spite of being distracted by their feelings...

„So? Where’s your room?” Adrien asked running after Marinette.  
  
“Somewhere upstairs for sure…” the girl muttered, opening quietly each door they passed and checking what was there.  
  
Finally, they found the Dupain-Cheng’s apartment. They went inside and started looking around curiously, as if they’d been there for the first time – which wasn’t so untrue at that moment.  
  
“You seem to be a very happy family…” Adrien whispered, staring at a family photo he was holding in his hands.  
  
“I hope so…” Marinette admitted, glancing over his shoulder. “Yet, they seem to me a bit, uhm, non-standard…”  
  
“Really?”  
  
“Well, I’m not so sure if any _normal_ parents would make their daughter kiss a boy just to take a photo for grandma…”  
  
“You didn’t seem to be very unwilling to follow their request…” he reminded with a smile, glancing at her sideways. She nudged him and said:  
  
“Or I’ll never kiss you again!”  
  
“Riight…” he muttered and leaned in towards her.  
  
She instinctively closed her eyes. And then she heard his chuckle. She glared at him.  
  
“You’re walking on thin ice, Kitty!” she warned him, unknowingly calling him by the nickname she’d used very often as Ladybug.  
  
“I’ve never heard about any cat already sheltered by his lady got hurt.” He answered back, winking at her.  
  
“You mean I’m your lady?” she laughed.  
  
“So it seems… M’Lady.” He smiled and was about to kiss her – this time for real, when Tikki cut in:  
  
“I don’t want to interrupt your lovely talk, but I think we planned to recharge some phone?”  
  
“First we need to find a charger.” Marinette came back to her senses. “And my room…”  
  
“I guess your room is upstairs.” Kwami suggested.  
  
“Oh, really?” the girl was surprised. “How do you know that?”  
  
“Well, that strange cat and I checked the next floor, while you were indulging in flirting…”  
  
“We weren’t indulging in flirting!” Marinette protested, blushing terribly.  
  
Adrien chuckled. He was so amused and captivated by this girl!  
  
“I think we _were indulging_ in flirting a little…” he admitted and laughed when Marinette glared at him again. He discovered that teasing her was so funny to him.  
  
Marinette rolled her eyes but couldn’t help smiling back at him. After all, he was so charming…  
  
“OK, let’s check that room…” she decided.  
  
After a moment they were looking around a room full of Adrien Agreste’s pictures.  
  
“It looks like we are a couple.” Adrien stated.  
  
“You’ve had any doubts?” Marinette smiled, but then she caught Tikki’s eyes and immediately came back to the point: “So… Where can I keep my charger?”  
  
“Let’s split.” Adrien suggested.  
  
“Great idea! Er…” Marinette hesitated and looked unsure at kwamis, not knowing what she should call them. She remembered that the red one had been offended by calling her “a bug”. And the little kitty called himself a super fantastic cat, not kitty. “Uhm… Creatures? Will you help us?”  
  
“Will I get camembert as a prize?” Plagg asked immediately, sniffing around.  
  
“I don’t even know how a charger looks like…” Tikki whispered apologetically.  
  
“It’s like a little black box with a cable.” Marinette explained shortly, seeking for such a thing.  
  
“We’ll try to help.” Tikki promised. “That cat will _also_ help!” she added, looking at the black kwami meaningfully.  
  
They dispersed. Marinette went up to the mezzanine to check her bed, Adrien focused on her desk. Kwamis disappeared in inaccessible corners.  
  
“It looks like you really can knit!” Adrien suddenly said, when he noticed her craft workshop.  
  
“Really?” Marinette asked surprised and leaned out the mezzanine.  
  
“You have even a sewing machine here, and lots of designs. Wow! You’re really good at it!”  
  
“Oh, thank you…” she blushed, moved by his compliment.  
  
“I’ve found a mouse!” Plagg shouted triumphantly and appeared with a black charger in his muzzle.  
  
“That’s what we’re looking for!” Marinette said happily.  
  
She felt so relieved and so excited that she almost fell from the mezzanine. At the last moment she grabbed some string, but it didn’t help much. Fortunately, Adrien ran up and caught her. They both fell on the ground.  
  
It was quite odd to lie on each other. Yet, neither of them wanted to get up…  
  
“I hope your parents won’t come here right now…” Tikki commented, and Plagg croaked significantly.  
  
That helped the teens to come back to their senses. They jumped away and looked at each other embarrassed.  
  
“And what’s _that?_ ” Adrien asked in astonishment.  
  
Marinette turned around quickly.  
  
The string she had grabbed a while ago revealed a huge sheet with a weekly time plan. Adrien’s weekly time plan.


	6. The realisation

Marinette was staring at the schedule filled with detailed information such as: classes, additional classes, more additional classes, some fencing, Chinese, Japanese, photoshoots, fashion shows…  
  
“What a heck is that?” she asked finally.  
  
“It looks like my schedule.” Adrien muttered.  
  
“But why, for god’s sake, _your_ schedule is in _my_ bedroom?”  
  
“I have no idea…”  
  
“Geez, Adrien!” Marinette called after examining the time plan. “You have no spare time! When do we go out?”  
  
They looked at each other, shocked by the realisation.  
  
“It looks like we don’t.” Adrien stuttered with a sudden knot in his throat. How was that possible that he didn’t date this perfect girl?  
  
“I’m not included in your time plan…” Marinette whispered.  
  
“But…” he began helplessly. “But I have so many your pictures in my phone!” he remembered with a sudden hope taking out his smartphone.  
  
He started checking his gallery, but the truth began to reach him inevitably. His phone was full of pictures of Ladybug. Not of Marinette… In fact, he didn’t have a single picture of the girl who was sitting next to him right now with arms around her knees, staring with shocked eyes at his schedule where there was no place for dates with his girlfriend.  
  
“It looks like I’ve been obsessed with you.” She whispered in consternation.  
  
“It looks like I’ve been obsessed with you as well.” He admitted, showing her his phone. “I have like a zillion pictures of Ladybug. I have poems about my love to you…” he added embarrassed.  
  
“Look at this!” she wrung her hands. “We’re sitting in my room with plenty of your pictures on the walls, with your schedule on my mezzanine. It’s pretty obvious that I have the biggest stalkerish crush on you…”  
  
“I’ll beat you.” He laughed, checking his inbox. “I’ve ordered a Ladybug body pillow. What would you say now? Takes one to know one…”  
  
Marinette stared at him dazed. And she began laughing. That was ridiculous!  
  
“It doesn’t make any sense.” She said finally.  
  
Suddenly, it occurred to her why Ladybug had been so against calling her and Cat Noir “a couple”, that they’d watched a while ago on the Internet.  
  
“I think I love you as Adrien, not as Cat Noir. And you love Ladybug, not me-Marinette…” she shared her revelation.  
  
“Impossible!” he protested immediately. “Firstly, you’re wonderful!” he said, and she blushed content with the compliment. “Secondly, how could I not notice that you and Ladybug are the same person? You literally look the same. I could put a picture of the two of you side by side and I wouldn’t see a difference! And thirdly…” he hesitated. “Marinette…”he called her so softly. “It’s so obvious we’re madly in love with each other…”  
  
She looked at him warmly. He was right – they were in love with each other. She had no doubts about it.  
  
“It’s all fault of not knowing our true identities!” Marinette realised. “If I knew you’re Cat Noir, I wouldn’t be so upset with calling as a couple.”  
  
“Or you did this for misleading the enemy?” he suggested with a hope.  
  
“You mean that we’re dating but I pretend to dislike Cat Noir?” she spotted.  
“That would make more sense than not recognising each other. I don’t think that our personalities change when we’re superheroes. Or that we’re blind …”  
  
“Something doesn’t match in your theory…” Marinette was a bit sceptical. “If it is so obvious that I’m Ladybug and you’re Cat Noir, why the supervillain didn’t go for our parents to blackmail us?”  
  
“You’re suggesting it’s not a well-known fact?”  
  
“Even more. I’m suggesting that even we don’t know about it. I’ve just remembered what Mr. Turtle said. He was really worried about the fact we learned about our identities. So, he’s been aware that usually we don’t know about each other.”  
  
Adrien looked at her concerned. She had to be right. He’d already been wondering what Mr. Turtle’s unfinished answer could mean.  
  
“This is so _unfair!_ ” he admitted irritably. “Because of some stupid rules we’ll never be together, because we love each other too much!”  
  
“What?” Marinette looked up at him.  
  
“If I love Ladybug as much as I love you, there’s no way I’ll look at any other girl. Even… Even at you…”  
  
“Oh, you’re right! You’re absolutely right! I’ll always reject Cat Noir, because I love you-Adrien too much!”  
  
They stared at each other so moved by the realisation they’d just made.  
  
“I’m going to kill myself…” Plagg muttered in a tone as if he was sick.  
  
“I suggest recharging the phone and calling Mr. Turtle, or you’ll forget again about your love!” Tikki reminded them about the mission.  
  
“What?” Marinette broke the eye-contact with Adrien.  
  
“Look outside, lovebirds!” Plagg suggested with a wry smile. “Oblivio is going to reach every Parisian, I suppose. I really don’t want to forget how delicious camembert is…” he sighed.  
  
Marinette approached to the window. She saw a huge violet sphere over the city. She guessed that Oblivio cumulated his shots in one load.  
  
She frowned, as if she was thinking fast about next steps. She even stopped paying attention to Adrien, who ignored the obvious sensation outside and was busy with his phone. In the end, he took a photo, which didn’t make sense at all.  
  
“OK, just give me that mouse!” Marinette ordered. “I mean the charger!”


	7. Comeback of superheroes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warning!** Major “Oblivio” spoilers below! Some scenes are quoted, some rearranged, some rewritten, some added…

“OK, Mr. Turtle…” Marinette said to the phone. “Summing up: I have to say a spell which turns me into Ladybug? And something you called a bugphone will appear where I’ll find instructions? I have catch an akuma, whatever it is, and then fix everything by another spell ‘Miraculous Ladybug’? Right?”  
  
“That’s right, Marinette.” Master Fu confirmed.” That’s how it works.”  
  
“So, uhm… What’s the spell?”  
  
“Cat Noir has to say ‘Plagg, claws out’, and you must say ‘Tikki, spots on’.”  
  
“Tikki, spots on?” Marinette repeated in surprise, and something strange happened after that.  
  
A little red creature jumped into Marinette’s earrings, some red light went through her body and after a moment there was Ladybug standing in front of Adrien.  
  
“Wow!” the boy whistled. “You look… uhm… wow…”  
  
“Well, thank you…” she smiled. “But I don’t feel like a superhero at all…”  
  
“OK, my turn…” Adrien took a deep breath. “Plagg, claws out!”  
  
“But I don’t want to!!!” the black kwami shouted, flying into the ring.  
  
A flash of green light later Cat Noir appeared in Marinette’s room.  
  
“So, let’s learn quickly about our abilities.” Ladybug suggested.  
  
They opened their super-phones and started checking the guidelines.  
  
“Yo-yo’s features, capturing the akuma…” she was reading the list of instructions. “One-time power ‘Lucky charm…’”  
  
At that moment the yo-yo escaped from her hand, and she screamed in the first reaction. She looked in shock when the yo-yo spun quickly to create a red pot with black dots.  
  
“A teapot? What am I supposed to do with this? Make tea?”  
  
“Maybe it’s a part of a puzzle or a riddle?” Cat Noir suggested, took his eyes off of his catphone to look at her.  
  
“You’re right!” She understood. “That must be one part of the solution. But… How I’m gonna find _the_ solution?”  
  
“Don’t worry. Remember, you’re always have the right idea at the right time.” Cat Noir reminded, winking at her. She smiled warmly in reply.  
  
“It’s time for action!” She jumped and turned away to leave her bedroom.  
  
Cat Noir followed her immediately. They had to come back to the place from where they had escaped by the scooter. This time, it took only seconds to be back at the Montparnasse Tower.  
  
“Wow, we ran across half a city, and I haven’t even thought about losing my breath…” Cat Noir laughed.  
  
“I’ve found in my guidebook that the miraculous enhances all physical abilities.” Ladybug explained.  
  
“It would be helpful during some sport competition.”  
  
“Don’t you think it would be a cheating, Kitty?” she winked at him and released her yo-yo.  
  
“Ma… My Lady…” he blushed, feeling his heart melted after hearing her calling him _‘Kitty’_.  
  
They jumped simultaneously on the roof. Oblivio had been already waiting for them.  
  
“Well, well…” he welcomed them sarcastically. “We’ve been waiting a while… You must be tired of being superheroes, don’t you? Maybe you want to get your minds off this never-ending fight? I can help to forget about your miraculouses…”  
  
All those words were accompanied by his bullets of oblivion, shot towards the superheroes. The fight wasn’t easy, when they didn’t remember how they usually had been doing that. Yet, both relied on their intuition. They managed to escape from the bullets but failed every time they wanted to reach the supervillain. Cat Noir’s attempt to attack Oblivio was unsuccessful, because the cat-stick went through the supervillain as if he was made from a cloud.  
  
“Seems like you’ve already forgotten about your last defeat!” Oblivio only laughed. “Oh, right! Of course, _you have forgotten!_ ”  
  
Cat Noir hid behind a shield made by Ladybug from her yo-yo. He opened his catphone to find more instructions.  
  
“Superpower ‘Catac…’” he began reading, but Ladybug stopped him:  
  
“You’ll trigger it when you say it aloud. What does your power do exactly?” she asked.  
  
“Apparently I can destroy anything I touch.”  
  
“So, stay away from me, if don’t mind!” she commented jokingly.  
  
“That’s not gonna be easy My Lady…” he gave her a wink.  
  
“You can’t hide there forever!” Oblivio shouted, frustrated by missing his targets.  
  
“We won’t get him until we stop him from firing at us.” Cat Noir muttered.  
  
“Of course!” an idea occurred to Ladybug. “His left hand is different that the rest of his body. That’s where the akuma is hiding!”  
  
And then she knew what to do.  
  
“Can you get him to forget about me for a while?”  
  
“I’m on it!” he agreed without hesitation and yelled at Oblivio: “Hey you! Do you wanna play cat and mouse with me? The first one who takes the other wins!”  
  
He ran away, and the supervillain was chasing him with his bullets, not paying attention to Ladybug at all. She took the opportunity and approached to Oblivio, caught his right hand and trapped it in the teapot. Then she called her partner:  
  
“Now, Cat Noir!”  
  
No one had to tell him twice. As Oblivio was trapped in a ceramic pot and was unable to shoot toward superheroes, Cat Noir could jump uncovered. He screamed “Cataclysm!” and touched the supervillain’s hand. The weapon turned into dust and revealed a black butterfly. Ladybug captured the akuma immediately and purified it. At the same moment Oblivio disappeared. Two teenagers fell on the floor instead, but neither Ladybug nor Cat Noir didn’t recognise their friends – Alya Cesaire nor Nino Lahiffe.  
  
“Wow, so this villain was both these guys?” Cat Noir was surprised.  
  
“So it seems.” Ladybug muttered. “I’m not curious anymore why he was calling himself ‘we’…”  
  
“And what we’ll do about _that?_ ” her partner asked, looking up.  
  
The purple sphere was still brewing above the Montparnasse Tower.


	8. The kiss that didn’t happen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warning! Major “Oblivio” spoilers below!** Some scenes are quoted, some rearranged, some rewritten, some added…

Ladybug frowned, staring at the purple sphere above their heads.  
  
“It seems that this is where my _other_ power comes in.” she stated finally. “It fixes everything back to how it was originally.”  
  
“So…” Cat Noir hesitated. “So, we won’t remember all this afterwards?"  
  
“Apparently, my ‘Miraculous Ladybug’ reverts everything. So I’m guessing we won’t…”  
  
“Oh…” Cat Noir sighed and lowered his head.  
  
Ladybug felt sorry too. They’d come back to normal – or rather to absurdity of his feelings to Ladybug and her feelings to Adrien. And they’d never be together because – as Adrien had said before: they loved each other too much to give it up for anyone else. Even for their other selves.  
  
“All right then.” Cat Noir whispered, approaching to her. “With your permission M’Lady…”  
  
She smiled at him tenderly. In fact, it wasn’t their first kiss – he didn’t have to ask for a permission. But he did… And that melted her heart. Suddenly, she felt heartbroken knowing that in a minute she’d forget what a wonderful boy he was.  
  
He embraced her more naturally than a while ago, when they’d played the scene in front of Marinette's parents. He looked deep into her eyes and smiled at her. He leaned toward her and she stood on tiptoe. And they met halfway.  
  
There was something familiar about this kiss. Familiar and snug. Like a comeback home after a long journey. They closed their eyes and clung together. Their hands entwined. The world could turn into dust, and they wouldn’t even notice…  
  
When Alya regained her consciousness, she saw an unusual picture. The pair of her favourite superheroes was drowning in the most tender kiss she had ever seen. Was it a dream? She shook disbelief off immediately! Such a windfall usually didn’t happen! She grabbed the smartphone and immortalised the moment in the picture. She knew that this would be the most valuable trophy in her entire career as a journalist and blogger.  
  
“Miraculous Ladybug!” the superheroine exclaimed the spell.  
  
Before the magical lady beetles reached the superheroes, Ladybug took the opportunity to hug Cat Noir just for a moment longer. When the spell brought their memories back, she jumped away from him, and he laughed embarrassed having no idea how it had happened they were hugging each other.  
  
“Ladybug? Cat Noir?” Alya approached to them.  
  
“Guys! You haven’t you seen a supervillain named Oblivio, have you?” Cat Noir asked them immediately.  
  
“Er… You’ve defeated it already dude.” Nino laughed.  
  
“Actually, he was… _us…_ ” Alya confessed with repentance.  
  
“Oh, OK.” Superheroes replied a bit surprised. “Pound it?” they looked at each other. “Pound it.”  
  
“You and I are a good couple, don’t you think?” Cat Noir commented. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have won again like we always do.”  
  
“Oh, we’re _a team_ , not _a couple!_ ” Ladybug replied irritably. “Don’t start that again! I’ve already told you that I’m in love in another boy! Besides, all your charming kitty act was the reason we became distracted and got into all those troubles in the first place.” She reminded, but he only laughed. “That’s right, laugh all you want!”  
  
But he touched her chin and turned her head toward Alya’s smartphone. With their kiss on the screen.  
  
Ladybug looked at the phone in shock. But… But how could it happen? What Cat Noir had done that she let him kiss her?! How could she forget about Adrien? Oh, right… She’d forgotten. Oblivio had erased all her memories, even the deepest feelings she had in her heart. Did it mean that these feelings weren’t strong enough and she fell in love with Cat Noir within one hour or so?  
  
“This is a disaster!” she exclaimed.  
  
“Well, there’s one thing we know for sure.” Cat Noir noticed content. “We’d make a good-looking couple. We’re meant for each other M’Lady. You’re _the only one_ who doesn’t see it.”  
  
Ladybug was about to reply on this, but her earrings beeped alarmingly. She had a minute before her detransformation. She glared at Cat Noir and drawled:  
  
“This conversation is _not over!_ ”  
  
Then she escaped the rooftop of the Montparnasse Tower. A moment later she landed in a nasty place in rear of the building, between some dirty skips. She hid behind them and revert into Marinette. She looked at her kwami with despair.  
  
“I can’t believe it! I actually kissed Cat Noir!” she whispered in shock. “How could this happen?”  
  
“Who knows?” Tikki replied rhetorically. “Maybe you still have things to learn about him?”  
  
“You… Do you remember anything?” Marinette asked.  
  
“Me? No…” kwami muttered.  
  
“Tikki…”  
  
“I don’t remember anything, promise!”  
  
“Why then you think that I don’t know something about Cat Noir. Something that would make me kiss him?”  
  
“Uhm… Just a guesswork…” Tikki whispered embarrassed.  
  
Marinette looked at her unconvinced. The intuition told her that kwami was concealing something from her. But she couldn’t figure out what it was. Without a word she opened her purse for Tikki. Then she left her hiding place.  
  
And she froze.  
  
She was standing face to face with Adrien.


	9. What does he know?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warning!** Minor "Oblivio" spoilers below!

Marinette didn’t remember too much of their return journey. There were some jokes about “Super Penguino” game, some teasing… Alya even tried to talk into her something related to Adrien.  
  
But Marinette didn’t care. All she was concerned was one crucial question: What had he heard?  
  
She’d been wondering about that since the moment she’d run into him. He didn’t blink then – maybe he was a bit embarrassed but said nothing. They stayed silent all the way back to the bus. Both were lost in their own thoughts. Both embarrassed. Yet, neither asked any question that could start conversation.  
  
Now, she was sitting in the bus and once or twice she glanced at him sideways just to notice that he was still embarrassed and silent. As if something was bothering him enough to ignore Nino’s efforts to start talking. That was alarming…  
  
What was he thinking about?  
  
She tried to recall in her mind the conversation with Tikki. Had she said anything that could reveal her identity? Oh, of course she had! She had chosen the worst place and time for discussions on her kisses with Cat Noir!  
  
She sighed heavily.  
  
“Hey, what’s up, girl?” Alya asked, looking at her.  
  
“What?” Marinette replied distracted.  
  
“Since I came back to the bus you haven’t said a word to me. You _do mind_ that I let Hawkmoth take over me again, don’t you?” Alya asked with reproach, as if she preferred to forestall her friend’s grudge.  
  
“What?” Marinette exclaimed in shock.  
  
“That’s why you don’t talk to me, right?”  
  
“No, of course not! Why do you think…?” Marinette began, but Alya interrupted her immediately:  
  
“I really don’t know why we let him in!”  
  
“Alya, I don’t…”  
  
“I know what you think! That it was easier to give up than to fight!”  
  
“No, I didn’t thi…”  
  
“You must know, Mari! He’s so convincing! You have no idea how it is like – hearing his voice in your head. He always uses the right words to make you think his way. You forget that he’s evil, that he’ll make you do evil things. But I know he’s a villain. You don’t have to remind me!”  
  
“But I really…”  
  
“We _wouldn’t take_ Ladybug and Cat Noir’s miraculouses! We would figure something out.”  
  
“I’m sure you would, Alya!” Marinette replied warmly, taking her friend’s hand and finally stopping her from talking. “You’re as great team as Ladybug and Cat Noir.”  
  
“We’re better.” Nino corrected her. “We’re _a couple._ ”  
  
Marinette flushed terribly because she automatically thought about Cat Noir. Her blush wouldn’t be unnoticed by her best friend, if only Alya wasn’t staring at Nino with admiration. Actually, Alya looked like her brain began working in theta waves. Nino smiled at her a bit embarrassed.  
  
“Er, Marinette?” he asked. “Can we switch?”  
  
She agreed without a word and sat down next to Adrien. Nino’s words made her forget that she was wondering if Adrien had heard what she’d told Tikki or not. She forgot that she was to avoid his company. She even forgot that usually she was so embarrassed every time he was around…  
  
Meanwhile Adrien smiled at her and whispered:  
  
“That was nice what you said.”  
  
“I said nothing…” she replied.  
  
“I mean, you showed her that you’re on her side. I don’t know… I think that Nino and Alya feel remorse about what happened, and it bothers them.”  
  
“Sometimes it’s easier to forgive the others than to forgive yourself…” Marinette muttered, and Adrien glanced at her with appreciation.  
  
“Do you really think, they wouldn’t take the miraculouses?”  
  
“I hope so. They both know that Hawkmoth is evil. I’m afraid…” she hesitated.  
  
“Of what?”  
  
“I’m afraid that he’s so convincing that one day he’ll akumatise me as well… That I won’t be able to fight with him in my head.”  
  
“Don’t worry, Marinette. You’ll never become a supervillain.”  
  
“You’re saying that to make me feel better…” she murmured.  
  
“No. I’m sure you won’t be akumatised. You’re the most positive person I know.” He admitted and looked at her so warmly, that she blushed immediately.  
  
And then a thought occurred to her – that he might know her secret…


	10. What the heck is that?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warning!** Minor “Oblivio” spoilers below!

Adrien sighed dreamily for the hundredth time, still staring at the screen of his computer.  
  
“I can’t believe it, Plagg! She finally fell in love with me. And I forgot all about it!” he banged his head against his desk.  
  
“You’re right, that’s _really_ unlucky.” Plagg commented, too busy with eating his camembert.  
  
“You know what? It doesn’t matter. If it happened once it happen again. At least now, I know my dream can come true.” Adrien summed up hopeful.  
  
“If you hadn’t complicated your life by yourself, it would have come true long time ago.” Kwami muttered under his breath that the boy couldn’t hear that.  
  
“I wish I remembered what I did that Ladybug fell in love with me.”  
  
“I can guess that without any memories.” Plagg murmured, but Adrien didn’t hear that either. He was still staring at the photo that Alya had uploaded on the Ladyblog.  
  
It was the second time he saw their kiss on the photograph. And for the second time he didn’t remember how it happened. Why he was so unlucky?  
  
He sighed heavily. Suddenly, he felt that looking at the photo is more painful than joyful for him. There was no chance that he’d remember anything. And knowing that he had forgotten about what made Ladybug fall in love with him – caused a growing frustration. Apparently, while being under Oblivio’s spell he’d forgotten about some mistakes he usually had been repeating in front of Ladybug. Maybe this was the key to change her feelings? Stop doing that. But what was that?  
  
He needed to focus on something else, before he went crazy! He shut down the browser and opened the e-mail inbox.  
  
“What the heck is _that?!_ ” he exclaimed in astonishment.  
  
Plagg pricked up his ears and left the last piece of camembert. Cheese could wait when something interesting was happening. A second later both Adrien and Plagg were gazing on a message sent to Adrien by… well… Adrien…  
  
_Go out with Marinette! Date her! KISS HER!!! Stop saying you don’t have a crush on her, because you DO have a crush on her! Otherwise she wouldn’t make you wear an old poncho found in the trash…_  
  
_I know what I’m talking about, because I’m literally YOU! And you’re an idiot, Adrien! How did you not fall in love with her? Are you insane?_  
  
_Oh, BTW she’s a good kisser. Just so you know._  
  
Adrien had never been as shocked as he was right now. Plagg started laughing his way as soon as he finished reading the letter. That was hilarious! He’d never had so much fun is his life!  
  
“Do you think it’s a spam message?” Adrien asked breathless.  
  
“ _Really?_ ” kwami asked in surprise. That boy was hopeless! He got obvious instructions, but still looked for complications!  
  
“There’s an attachment there. I suppose it’s a virus.” Adrien noticed suspiciously.  
  
“I think it was sent by some genius. You are an idiot. And he knew that.” Plagg commented.  
  
“A hacker you mean?”  
  
“Are you listening what I’m saying?!” kwami got angry. He wanted to yell: _OPEN THAT DAMN ATTACHMENT!!!_  
  
“You’re saying about a genius…”  
  
“You’re right, it couldn’t be _you…_ ”  
  
“Are you insulting me right now?” Adrien was outraged.  
  
“You could think if it’s possible that you sent an e-mail to yourself.”  
  
“It was sent at…” Adrien checked time on the message. “…at 1 p.m. It’s about 30 minutes before we came back from the trip. That means… It was sent when I was under the Oblivio’s spell. You think… Do you think…?”  
  
“Whatever I think it doesn’t matter.” Plagg muttered. “I’ve noticed you don’t pay attention.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Maybe you could just follow the advice? It looks like you fell for her.”  
  
“Have you lost your mind?!” Adrien exclaimed.  
  
“Concluding from the e-mail you kissed her today.” Plagg obviously had a great time.  
  
“Concluding from the e-mail I was wearing trash as well.” The boy answered back. “Impossible. Highly impossible. That must be a spam.”  
  
“Or you just forgot about being so _‘glamour’…_ ” Plagg laughed. “I wish I remembered this day! It looks like you got wild. You kissed Marinette, you kissed Ladybug. Wild…”  
  
“I don’t remember kissing Marinette. Nor Ladybug. But at least I have a proof for the latter. Stop talking into me that I started picking up all girls around me. Or that I was wearing trash.”  
  
“I’m not talking anything into you. I’m trying to solve the riddle.” Kwami replied, having a lot of fun.  
  
“It’s just a spam. I’ll delete it and problem’s solved.”  
  
“NO!!!” Plagg yelled.  
  
“What happened to you?” Adrien asked a bit shocked and took his finger back from a “Delete” button.  
  
“Keep it. That message can be useful.”  
  
“That spam?”  
  
“What if it’s not a spam? What if there’s something important in the attachment?”  
  
“I’m not going to risk. If I open it and a virus destroys all computers at home, my father will ground me to the end of my life or kill me.”  
  
“Probably the latter…” Plagg muttered under his breath and added in a normal tone: “I’ve already told you to listen to me.”  
  
“So, what am I supposed to do?”  
  
“Let the message alone. Time will tell if it’s useful. You have no idea what you were doing for two hours or so. Collect data. That e-mail can help.”  
  
“OK, Plagg. You won. But if I don’t get any new information soon, I’ll delete it.”  
  
“Sure. Do what you want. But not too hasty.”  
  
Adrien only shrugged and after shutting down the computer he got up and left the room. Kwami only sighed with relief and flew back to the plate with camembert.  
  
“I’ll need a therapy after all that…” he murmured.


	11. Check-mate

Adrien knew it would be a hard day. After yesterday school trip, amnesia, kisses (those proven on the picture and those alleged) and the mysterious e-mail from himself he barely had fallen asleep.  
  
What could it mean? And why Plagg chortled every time when Adrien started wondering aloud why he’d encouraged himself to date Marinette? That was totally illogical! Especially when his dream had finally come true – Ladybug had fallen in love with him and she kissed him! On the other hand… Was it possible that he’d kissed Marinette as well? Could it happen that he’d got wild, as Plagg joked?  
  
He had no idea what he should think about it, so before he went to school he decided to stop thinking about it at all. Easier to decide than to do… He totally failed.  
  
Because of Marinette.  
  
When he saw her standing next to Alya and Nino at the school courtyard, he felt a strange sensation in his stomach and a flush on his cheeks. He couldn’t control it at all! At first, he wanted to hide in a bathroom until a school bell would force him to join the class. But he wasn’t so lucky – he was noticed by Nino, who greeted him from a distance. Adrien had no choice – reluctantly he came closer to the group of his friends.  
  
“Hi…” he muttered.  
  
“Hey…” Alya and Nino replied embarrassed. Marinette murmured something under her breath, avoiding his eyes.  
  
He could explain why Alya and Nino acted that way – probably if he became a supervillain, he wouldn’t want to face his colleagues the next day – but he was clueless in case of Marinette. It occurred to him that maybe she remembered something from yesterday, maybe he’d done something inappropriate? What if he _had_ kissed her? What if the e-mail wasn’t just a joke of someone who had took his phone? In that case Marinette had many reasons to feel uncomfortable in his company.  
  
Yet there was something more… When he was standing so close to her, he couldn’t help glancing at her lips from time to time. There was something familiar in their shape, in the smell of her lip gloss and that got him more and more worried.  
  
He felt his hands became sweaty immediately, and his blush darkened. It was like a torture!  
  
“I wish this day ended already…” Alya muttered.  
  
“It hasn’t begun for good yet…” Adrien replied under his breath.  
  
“Some remorse for yesterday, dude?” Nino asked.  
  
“What?” Adrien jumped in surprise. “No, not at all! Why- Why would I have any? No, no remorse. Why do you ask?”  
  
Nino chuckled. He had never seen Adrien in such a mood before! It had to be something that had happened yesterday, and that made this sunshine boy uncomfortable. They didn’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to know that it was related to Marinette somehow. She was more embarrassed than usual, Adrien acted like his nerves were all on edge. And Nino really wanted to focus on anything but his own remorse.  
  
“Actually, what were you doing yesterday, dude?” he asked curious.  
  
“Me?” Adrien replied in a defensive tone. “I… I don’t remember… You shot me with your oblivion bullet.”  
  
“I don’t remember we shot _you…_ ” Nino said slowly, winking at his girlfriend. “Do you, babe?”  
  
“Same…” Alya smiled playfully. “We shot only those people at the door. And then only Ladybug and Cat Noir. No more victims, I guess…”  
  
“I was at the door!” Adrien confirmed too quickly.  
  
“Well…” Alya and Nino exchanged their glances.  
  
Adrien felt like he was out of his depth. It was like a nightmare!  
  
“How is it possible that you remember anything?” Marinette asked suddenly, distracting her friends. “Isn’t it like after purifying akumas supervillains don’t remember what they were doing when they were akumatised?”  
  
“Have you ever been akumatised?” Alya asked immediately.  
  
“Or seen Ladybug purifying akumas?” Nino added.  
  
Marinette bit her lips not to smile. Oh, if only they knew! Fortunately her friend misunderstood her expression and noticed with satisfaction:  
  
“Exactly! Besides… You haven’t told us either, what did you do yesterday.”  
  
“I… don’t remember…” Marinette answered. “My mom told me that I’d come back home, but it’s impossible. It was a joke, I’m sure …” she added so quietly, that they barely heard her.  
  
They were so focused on their conversation that they didn’t notice Miss Bustier approaching. She put her hands on Alya and Nino’s shoulders and said with a warm smile:  
  
“I would like to talk to you before we begin our classes.”  
  
They both blushed with embarrassment. If they thought that a short explanation in the bus yesterday had been enough, they’re were mistaken. Their teacher seemed to prepare something extra for them. Before they followed Miss Bustier, Alya glanced quickly at her best friend. Marinette could only smile compassionately and rose her thumb as if she wanted to say _‘Don’t worry, everything will be OK!’_  
  
Adrien was watching this from sideways. He felt like all those gestures were so familiar to him. Suddenly he noticed how Marinette looked like when she expressed the empathy to Alya. That was surprising to him to see her this way. Of course, he had known she was always a huge support for all her friends – he’d even called her once _‘everyday Ladybug’!_ Yet, he had judged her by her actions. He’d never watched her face expression or body language when she was doing that. He’d never noticed before how much warmth and positive emotions were in her eyes! He’d never realised how much he relied on her warmth and heartiness… Until now…  
  
That made him concerned. Why being so close to her made him uncomfortable? Why did he feel…? Well… He didn’t even know what he could name those feelings! Did he let the mysterious e-mail influence his perception? Even though he had already decided to treat it as a joke or a spam, he suddenly felt an impulse to check if he was wrong.  
  
“Er… Marinette?” he asked in a whisper.  
  
She jumped embarrassed and glanced at him blushed.  
  
“Y-Yes?”  
  
“Uh… Just wondering… Do you remember anything during Oblivio?”  
  
“No, actually.” She shook her head. “My parents told me I came back home and I brought a really good friend with me. But it’s a nonsense, right?” she chuckled nervously, and Adrien thought that his heart would beat right out of his chest!  
  
“Haha! Right! Totally a nonsense…” he laughed uneasily.  
  
Suddenly they both looked at each other in concern. As if they had no idea what the other knew. And how to collect all the puzzles of the past, that evidently had taken place, in a logic whole.


	12. The puzzle

“OK, Plagg. It has to have any logical explanation!” Adrien sighed while pacing across his room.  
  
“Then stop talking over it and just ask _her_ out!” Plagg began to lose his patience.  
  
“I… I can’t…” Adrien confessed and stopped suddenly in the centre of his room.  
  
He was looking at the window with unseeing eyes and became silent. Kwami got alarmed immediately. Maybe this boy was indeed hopeless in love matters, blind for his friend’s qualities, and totally oblivious for the obvious things, but he was very sensitive at the same time, and Plagg – in spite of endless teasing – _was_ devoted to him very much. Of course, he would _never_ admit it aloud! Well, OK, maybe once or twice he let slip something stupid about his feelings to his holder, but it was _always_ under huge stress and emotions, or a threat! Yet, unfortunately, he felt that this boy knew perfectly that Plagg… well… _loved_ him… Er…  
  
“Uhm… Adrien?” kwami flew closer to the boy’s face and looked at him in concern. “Haloooo! Talk to me!”  
  
“What’s up?” Adrien suddenly woke up from his thoughtfulness.  
  
“Why can’t you ask Marinette out?” Plagg asked, watching the boy carefully.  
  
“Because… Well… I just can’t!” Adrien sighed in reply and flopped into the floor.  
  
“You can’t say such things in that tone, kid!” kwami commented. “You have to be more precise!”  
  
“You can’t help me…” The boy only shook his head.  
  
“But I can give my ear. Maybe together we’ll find a solution?”  
  
“I doubt it…” Adrien muttered. “How could it happen?!” he exclaimed suddenly, glaring at Plagg.  
  
“What _have I_ done?!” kwami replied in a defensive tone.  
  
“You haven’t. But it happened…” Adrien put his head down and curled up with arms around his knees.  
  
“Hey, kid! Stop scaring me!” Plagg cuddled up to the boy’s cheek. “ _Talk_ to me!”  
  
“Plagg?” Adrien jerked his head up. His kwami had never – well, _almost never_ – shown his warm emotions.  
  
“You can’t scare me like that!” Plagg replied with reproach and moved back. “I’m of a certain age! I live a very unhealthy life. I’d say even CATastrophically unhealthy. If I was a human being I’d have all my veins and arteries glued with camembert already! I live under permanent stress that supervillain can show up and some teenager with love problems will make me work hard as a superhero!” he was mumbling just to cover a moment of empathy.  
  
“I forgot you can be sensitive…” Adrien muttered a bit amused by the speech.  
  
“No, I _cannot!_ I have to take care of you, because you would make me destroy half a city and then it would be my fault! Like with Pisa. Or Atlantis.”  
  
“Plagg? Are you all right?”  
  
“I’m fine. That’s _you_ who scared me! Then I become anxious and start talking nonsense. I have to eat some cheese!” Plagg flew back to his plate, took a piece of camembert and came back to Adrien, who winced as soon as he smelled cheese. “Now, tell me, kid, why you can’t date Marinette since you really want it.”  
  
“How do you know that?” slipped out from Adrien.  
  
“Hehehe!” Plagg croaked. “I’m kwami. I know this and that… Especially _that_ …” he added in a meaningful tone and winked at Adrien.  
  
“Er, OK… I can’t ask Marinette out, because… Because I love Ladybug, right?”  
  
“Wait, you’re _asking_ me, or what?”  
  
“I don’t get it. Why can’t I stop thinking about Marinette? It’s like I was cheating on Ladybug…” Adrien confessed, and Plagg felt he needed more cheese. The solution was so close, and he couldn’t help…  
  
“You’re not married to Ladybug…” he muttered, chewing his camembert.  
  
“But I confessed my feelings to her. Not once, but twice at least! So, I declared she’s the lady of my heart. I can’t change the object of my affection. Especially after she kissed me!”  
  
“Technically, it was _you_ who kissed _her._ That how it looked like. Besides, you’ve already tried to change your target, right? I remember you didn’t think you were cheating on her that time?”  
  
“Because I was upset that she’d turned me down.” Adrien admitted, guessing what time Plagg meant.  
  
“Yeah, that’s a very good reason!” kwami muttered sarcastically.  
  
“Besides, that thing was pointless. Kagami is just… Kagami… She would more likely cut me into pieces than…”  
  
“Than what?”  
  
“Than be my support…”  
  
“Uhm, kid? You know that it’s not a purpose of having a girlfriend, don’t you?” Plagg asked in a suspicious tone. That boy was hopeless…  
  
“I know… But when I think of my girlfriend… I feel… I feel she should support me. You know… When it’s a hard time… Not only go out with me to galas and shows.”  
  
“And… Whose face your girlfriend has?” kwami asked, perfectly knowing the answer.  
  
“She used to have Ladybug’s face. For a long time… But today…”  
  
_Come on, kid!_ Plagg yelled in his head and sent all thoughts in the right direction.  
  
“Today I discovered… that… it’s Marinette’s…” Adrien whispered, staring at nowhere in front of him. “I don’t know how it happened… And why I feel that strange…” he stopped suddenly embarrassed.  
  
“Strange what?”  
  
“Strange attraction…” he finished, blushing terribly.  
  
“Maybe you _did kiss_ her yesterday?” Plagg suggested. “Maybe your body remember something that your head forgot?”  
  
Adrien looked at him in concern. He felt like those words were hiding a key to solve these puzzles…


	13. The umbrella

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warning!** I kindly ask you not to read this chapter in a public place – especially at school (!!!), work, public transport etc. Reading in the middle of the night (when everyone around is sleeping) **isn’t recommended** as well! I don’t accept any complaints if you ignore this warning and start fangirling or screaming… I had so much fun with writing this chapter. Have fun with reading as well!  
> L.K.  
> P.S. Oh, by the way. Yes, you’re right. It’s **THE umbrella!** :-)

Marinette didn’t know what she should think about it all. She’d been replaying that crazy day, when Oblivio had erased her memory – over and over again. She tried to analyse all pieces of memories hoping that she’d manage to solve the biggest riddle of last days – Adrien’s strange behaviour.  
  
Firstly, she noticed that he was avoiding her. Soon after she caught him watching her furtively. She remembered immediately the moment, when she’d run into him in rear of the Montparnasse Tower. All her fears returned to her. Had he heard her talk to Tikki? Had he figured out that she was Ladybug? Maybe he was trying to prove it now? If so, should she ask him to be discreet or should she deny everything?  
  
Her brain worked twice faster. She was creating more and more scenarios of denial, even though she couldn’t think up any believable lie just in case he asked her directly if she was Ladybug.  
  
Yet it looked like he wasn’t going to ask her about it at all. So far he was hiding from her and avoiding her like a plague. It suited her, because she didn’t have to worry that he’d ask her about that day. Actually, he had asked her about it once, but not about anything special. When she answered that she didn’t remember anything, he laughed nervously and let it go. She would probably sigh with relief if only she didn’t spot his glances the next day.  
  
Adrien blushed terribly and looked away immediately after being caught red-handed. Marinette didn’t see him to the end of the day, as if he totally disappeared, which was impossible if he participated in classes. Yet, he was leaving the classroom without a word at the moment of school bell ringing. Nino and Alya exchanged glances, and Marinette was maturing to take a huge step forward.  
  
After three days of this hide-and-seek her head was full of guesswork and scenarios. She finally decided to stop this madness and to find a courage to confront Adrien. It wasn’t easy, because even _thinking_ about talking to him was so stressful for her! Her heart began pounding, her cheeks were beet red, her tongue was knotted – same was her stomach. On the other hand, she couldn’t stand it anymore – that anxiety, uncertainty and visible pain on Adrien’s face. What was happening to him that he looked so miserably?  
  
On Saturday she gave up. A spring rain was the last straw.  
  
She always loved the rain. Well… Not literally _‘always’_ but definitely since that day when Adrien had lent her his umbrella in front of the school. Since the day she’d fallen in love with him.  
  
Every time it was raining, she reminded herself that special moment, when he had handed her the umbrella, and their palms met. She felt like a spark leapt between them, but she was sure that he didn’t feel the same way. Otherwise he wouldn’t call her “just a friend” so persistently.  
  
Last week made her mature to confess his friend that she would hope for being someone _more_ than a friend to him.  
  
It wasn’t something that she looked forward to. It was rather like a toothache, when you are perfectly aware that the best solution is to go to a dentist, but it doesn’t mean you are willing to do it.  
  
Marinette laughed when she realised she’d just compared confessing Adrien her feelings to a visit to a tooth doctor!  
  
“What’s happened?” Tikki asked in surprise.  
  
“No-Nothing… It’s just…” the girl hesitated.  
  
“Just what?” kwami spotted.  
  
“It’s raining…” Marinette whispered.  
  
It could be a nonsense, but Tikki understood what was going on. She knew what the girl was thinking about every time it was raining.  
  
“Do you want to take a walk?”  
  
“Yeah, I do…” Marinette smiled with that special dreamy smile which was reserved for thoughts about Adrien.  
  
She took an umbrella – the same that Adrien had given her almost two years ago – and left the apartment.  
  
As only she went outside, she smelled the rain. The spring ones always smelled so nice!  
  
She looked at the umbrella and smiled, stroking its handle. Then she opened it with one click and moved forward. She headed for the park nearby. She liked going there, because so many memories were related to that place: Adrien’s photoshoots, their lunch together when they had trained for the Ultra Mecha Strike tournament, the class photo…  
  
Suddenly, she froze.  
  
There was Adrien – running across the park, straight in her direction.  
  
Soaked Adrien.  
  
His hair was wet, but he looked like it didn’t bother him at all. He laughed jumping over puddles. Suddenly he stopped, and his laughter died down. He was staring at Marinette in astonishment like she was staring at him.  
  
In the rain.  
  
She shook off her amazement as the first. Unconsciously she smiled at him and waved welcome to him. He looked at her in surprise, but followed the invitation and hid from the rain under the umbrella.  
  
He focused not to hug Marinette against all his wishes. She was standing so close to him, that he could see some raindrops from his hair fell down on her face. She giggled and he became confused. He looked away immediately and then he noticed a peculiar scratch on the handle of the umbrella she was holding.  
  
“Is it…?” he hesitated. “Is it my umbrella?”  
  
“Uhm, yeah…” she whispered.  
  
“You _still_ have it?”  
  
“As you can see…”  
  
“But… It’s been like two years since I gave it to you…”  
  
“A year, nine months and three days…” Marinette mumbled.  
  
He looked at her in amusement. Seriously? That was the exact time that had passed since that day? He reached the handle to take the umbrella. When their palms met, both felt like a spark leapt – again – between them. They quivered.  
  
And at that moment the umbrella closed without a warning, trapping them inside.  
  
Marinette hit Adrien’s arm and winced involuntarily. It was a disaster! What would he think about her right now?! Thankfully she didn’t hit the handle, because she would get a bruise on her face after that.  
  
Suddenly, she felt a cold raindrops on her neck. They had to fall down from his hair. She chuckled and he joined her after a while. They were standing trapped into the umbrella and laughing at the ridiculous situation they encountered.  
  
“I forgot about that defect…” Adrien muttered in her ear.  
  
“Why didn’t you buy a new one then?” she asked in surprise. Somehow not seeing his face helped her to overcome her shyness.  
  
“This umbrella was very special for me.” He confessed.  
  
“Special?” she spotted.  
  
“It belonged to my mom…” he said glancing at her.  
  
“Why didn’t you tell me?!” she asked trying to look up at him. “I would give it back to you long time ago!”  
  
“You don’t have to. I wanted you to have it. Besides… I felt you would keep it.” He smiled and reached the handle with his other hand to open the umbrella.  
  
Marinette felt strange sensation in her stomach when she realised she was like in his embraces. Was it a dream? If it was, it was the most wonderful dream in her life!  
  
“Ouch!” Adrien hissed just after opening the umbrella.  
  
“What happened?” She returned to the reality.  
  
“I… I think… I became entangled.” He muttered trying to reach his hair, but every move caused pain.  
  
“Wait, let me try…” Marinette suggested. “We can’t let the most popular model in the city lost his famous hair…” she murmured jokingly.  
  
Adrien chuckled and leaned in, but it was too painful. He felt like someone was tearing his hair out by the handful.  
  
“Just keep the umbrella straight.” Marinette advised and climbed on her tiptoes.  
  
When she reached his hair, he felt dizzy. He realised how close she was, when he felt her hands around his neck and her breath around his ear.  
  
He clutched the handle to protect Marinette from the rain, but it caused more pain and Marinette’s irritation.  
  
“Stand still!” she muttered.  
  
“I am…” he whispered just into her cheek and felt that she finally rescued him from the trap.  
  
Her hands froze. She held her breath. And was waiting. But for what?  
  
“You know…” he whispered suddenly intimidated. “Oblivio Adrien sent me a message.”  
  
“W-What a message?” she asked breathless.  
  
“He told me to ask you out…” he confessed with a warm smile on his face, embracing her shyly, and when she gasped, he added: “And he wrote that you’re a good kisser…”  
  
And he kissed her.


	14. Only a dream

Adrien’s lips were warm and soft. And somehow familiar… Marinette felt like it was a dream. A wonderful dream and she didn’t want to wake up. Ever!  
  
When Adrien broke the kiss he looked at her dreamily.  
  
“You _are_ a good kisser, indeed.” He blurted out and she giggled.  
  
“You kissed me because someone had sent you a message that I’m a good kisser?”  
  
“Not _‘someone’_ but me.” He corrected her.  
  
“But… How did you know? Assuming that I am a good kisser…” she muttered a bit confused.  
  
“I think I kissed you when we were under the Oblivio’s spell. And that e-mail was a hint to find the opportunity to kiss you again. For real.”  
  
“You kissed me to check if you were right?” she asked suspiciously.  
  
“Honestly? No.” he admitted.  
  
“So, why do you think I’m a good kisser?” she asked the question she wouldn’t ever ask him in reality, but in a dream she could do whatever she wanted, right?  
  
“Maybe I’m not so experienced…” he lied, because he wasn’t experienced at all! “But I’m deducing from that…” he hesitated and blushed. “…That I want to kiss you again…”  
  
“And you really think it’s because of my technique?” she teased him.  
  
“Er… I don’t…” he replied unsure. He knew exactly _why_ he wanted to kiss her again, and again. And again. But he had no idea why Marinette acted so at ease. Did it mean he had made a fool of himself by kissing her? Maybe _he_ was a terrible kisser? Maybe she had some experience so she could compare him to other boys? Maybe…? “Why? Have you practiced?” he blurted out.  
  
“Not really… A natural talent, I guess…” she grinned. “And you? Have you already kissed anyone?” she asked him directly.  
  
“Even if, I don’t remember.” He answered truthfully. “What about you?”  
  
She blushed terribly. She didn’t want to lie to him, but she couldn’t tell him that she had kissed Cat Noir a long time ago… And a few days ago – even if she didn’t remember that at all, this kiss was immortalised on Alya’s photo, so she couldn’t deny she hadn’t done that either.  
  
Adrien looked at her carefully and a shadow flashed across his face. Her blush was his answer. He reminded Luka Couffaine immediately – the boy who had been hanging around Marinette for some time. She even had asked him for that “double date” on the ice rink one day. Oh, indeed he made a fool of himself again!  
  
Marinette noticed a change in his mood instantly. This dream was going in a wrong direction!  
  
“Don’t worry…” she whispered to herself. “It’s not happening for real… I’ll wake up in a moment…”  
  
“Uhm… Marinette?” Adrien asked confused.  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Why are you going to wake up?” he asked with smile, as if he finally figured out why she was at ease.  
  
“Er… Because it’s just a dream.”  
  
“I don’t think we’re _both_ dreaming…”  
  
“What?”  
  
“It’s _not_ a dream, Marinette. It _is happening_ for real.”  
  
“What?! _WHAT?!_ Does it mean…?” she looked at him in horror. “Oh no… No, no, NO! Wait… I have told you all those things for rea-real?! No, it’s not happening! Wake up Marinette!” she began panicking.  
  
“Hey, calm down…”  
  
“Ca-Calm down?” she glanced at him. “Adrien… It’s impossible!”  
  
“What exactly?” he preferred to know for sure.  
  
“Adrien, that’s totally unacceptable. To many coincidences! It’s raining, it’s your mother’s umbrella, you gave it to me on purpose, you ki-kissed me… You want to ki-kiss m-me more…”  
  
“Why do you think it’s unacceptable?” he asked breathless. Was she going to break his heart? After their kiss?  
  
“It’s because…” she hesitated. “Nobody is so lucky in life!” she admitted embarrassed. “Besides, I’ll never look into your eyes again! Not after all those things I’ve just said. Not after that kiss… Forget about it!”  
  
Adrien laughed out loud. She was adorable when she was so embarrassed. By the way he felt so relieved that she wasn’t going to reject him, that he immediately embraced her and kissed again. She stiffened but melted soon after, and kissed him back.  
  
And the rain was still pouring down.  
  
Finally they pulled away and Marinette had to admit that looking in his eyes was too hard for her. She hid her face in his shirt and he laughed quietly.  
  
“Seriously, you’re going not to look in my eyes ever again?” he asked in whisper.  
  
She nodded without a word.  
  
“And you’re going not to speak to me ever again?”  
  
She confirmed by another nod.  
  
“Well, I’ll miss that…” he confessed, grinning. “I like listening to your voice. I like looking in your eyes. In fact, I like a lot of things related to you… And I like _you…_ ”  
  
She jerked her head up and looked at him in amazement.  
  
“Oh, you’ve changed your mind!” he laughed.  
  
“What do you mean by saying you like _me?_ ” she asked.  
  
“I _like_ you.” He repeated in a meaningful tone.  
  
She was staring at him and processing the news. He liked her in a way she’d been liking him since forever! Apparently it wasn’t a dream if Adrien had said before that they couldn’t dream both. Otherwise it would be too cruel.  
  
“And I like kissing you…” Adrien added with a smile, watching all possible emotions on her face.  
  
“I like kissing you too.” She replied. “And I like you. _Like_ -like…” she confessed.  
  
He looked at her carefully.  
  
“Marinette, you _are aware_ that you said it for real?” he asked to be sure. “And it’s not a dream? And you won’t wake up to forget it all?”  
  
“I think I can deal with the consequences if you said a lot of important things as well. And _for real_.”  
  
She climbed on her tiptoes and kissed him. And when he broke the kiss to ask her:  
  
“So, who have you kissed?”  
  
She only laughed and answered in a playful tone:  
  
“Not today, Agreste, not today. But I’ll tell you some day, promise.”  
  
And she kissed him again.


	15. The photographs

“Adrien, dear?” Sabine asked softly, standing at the door to the bakery to catch the boy before he disappeared upstairs. “Can I talk to you for a moment?”  
  
“Of course, Mrs. Cheng!” Adrien immediately replied and although he couldn’t wait to see Marinette, he followed her mom to the bakery.  
  
It was Sunday morning and Adrien came to spend some time with his girlfriend before a family dinner for which Marinette had invited him yesterday. Yes! His girlfriend! Kissing in the rain were quite successful.  
  
He guessed that Marinette’s parents would like to talk to him, since he’d started dating their daughter, but he didn’t expect that they’d do it so instantly and without a warning… In addition, he was alone now, without his girlfriend by his side. Her presence would definitely help him to face her parents.  
  
“I’d like to show you something.” Mrs. Cheng said in a soft tone. “Marinette probably will tell you about it herself, so I think you should know what to expect.”  
  
“Is it something serious?” Adrien asked with fear, because it sounded like Marinette’s mother wanted to tell him about some terminal sickness of her daughter. He felt a heartache when he thought he could lose her.  
  
“It depends on how to look at it.” Sabine just smiled with comprehension. She could read in his thoughts like in an open book.  
  
He sighed with relief, because that smile could mean that a terminal sickness is not an issue. He looked at Marinette’s mom and waited. Meanwhile she reached behind and put on a table something he didn’t expect at all – a laptop.  
  
“I talked to Marinette yesterday and she informed us that you’re dating.” She began while the computer was launching. “Tom and I are very happy that you’re finally together! We’ve been supporting you for a very long time. Yet… You must know about something that happened this week, about which you apparently forgot. I have to stress here that neither my husband nor I accept lying. I hope you both had good reason to lie to us. We accounted it for the spell you were under and for your will to protect us, the parents. I assume our daughter didn’t want to worry us.”  
  
In the middle of Sabine’s speech Adrien felt like he began suffering from irregular heartbeat. By the way he forgot how to breathe. He was staring at Mrs. Cheng in horror and thinking about the worst possible scenario – that Marinette’s parents forbade their daughter from dating Adrien. In that case he would probably jump from the nearest bridge. Visiting his girlfriend illegally on her balcony was impossible – firstly, he would reveal Cat Noir’s identity, secondly – that would be deceiving the parents more than lying. The consequences would be even worse. Fortunately, Sabine smiled and Adrien could sigh with relief.  
  
“So, when Marinette informed us yesterday about your dating status, we got a proof of our assumption that when you had come here wearing those old ponchos, you put on a little show.”  
  
“Old ponchos?!” Adrien spotted and his heart skipped a beat. Meanwhile he felt some trembling in his pocket. That could mean only one thing: Plagg was convulsed with laughter.  
  
“Oh, yes! We were a bit surprised by this, but didn’t ask. I took some photos that day and I think it’s the right moment for you to see them. The more that Marinette’s reaction was quite… uhm… surprising…”  
  
Saying those words Sabine chuckled and Adrien felt anxious a little. He had no idea what to expect, especially when Marinette’s mom had great time, and he didn’t catch the point.  
  
He started understanding the situation after noticing the first photo on the computer. The photo of him kissing Marinette!  
  
He didn’t remember this for sure! They were standing in the corridor, both blushed, embraced, with eyes closed. This picture was so intimate that Adrien felt his cheeks burning when he watched it. Marinette’s mom discreetly looked away but she couldn’t stop smiling. God, these kids were adorable!  
  
“I hope you don’t mind that pictures are in a reverse order, do you?” she whispered as if nothing had happened and she began clicking on next photographs.  
  
It was like watching a movie in a “rewind” mode. He saw the moment when he had been embracing Marinette, her face before he had done it, his face when he had looked like he was asking her for a permission to kiss her. He saw their embarrassed faces on over twenty pictures before their kiss.  
  
During this time he was watching them, his mind was working on a new issue. He put together two pictures – taken on the same day – showing two different kisses: Adrien kissing Marinette and Cat Noir kissing Ladybug. How was is possible that he kissed them both _within one hour?_ How was it possible that both photos showed so much emotions and tenderness? What the heck had happened that day?!  
  
Suddenly he saw the picture when he had helped Marinette to take off some rags. He felt hot. Were those “famous” old ponchos? He held his breath. And then Sabine showed him the last photo – the first one she had taken.  
  
Adrien felt heartbeat in his ears.  
  
There was him on the picture. He was taking off the rags with a visible relief on his face. And Marinette was glaring at him. _The_ same way someone else had done many times before. The someone he called His Lady. Ladybug…


	16. Mission accomplished

Adrien went upstairs feeling like he was in a dream. Stepping up wasn’t easy when his knees became weak. All the time he was wondering how it was possible he missed the fact that Marinette was Ladybug.  
  
At the same time Plagg was cackling and that made the boy sure that he was right. Nothing was more amusing for his kwami than a painful irony!  
  
“I told you it wasn’t a spam and you should open the attachment!” Plagg croaked between the first and the second floor, when he was sure that Mrs. Cheng wouldn’t hear them.  
  
“The attachment!” Adrien stopped immediately and reached for his phone.  
  
He found the mysterious e-mail from himself and – without further hesitation – he opened the file. It was a photo which he had taken from hiding. Marinette was standing in her room, looking out of the window in concern. Her frown and determined gaze reminded him Ladybug so much and so clearly! His Lady always had that look when she tried to figure out a plan for defeating the akuma. Every single time. He had seen that look so many times that it was highly impossible he could be mistaken now. That was his proof.  
  
“Did you know?” he asked his kwami, who left his pocket to see the picture.  
  
“About what was the attachment?” Plagg was surprised. “I had no idea.”  
  
“About who is Ladybug.” Adrien clarified.  
  
“Oh, that…” kwami tried to stall.  
  
“So you knew…” Adrien didn’t need to hear the answer anymore. “It’s a pity you didn’t tell me.”  
  
“Kwami can’t tell their holders’ names. Nor the names of holders of other miraculouses.”  
  
“I wonder why.”  
  
“Maybe to protect the miraculouses?” Plagg was thinking aloud. “Just think about it. If you knew who Ladybug is, weren’t you tempted to gain the ultimate power?”  
  
“No.” Adrien replied firmly.  
  
“Oh, right. I forgot you’re the embodiment of altruist. Yet, there were some superheroes that wanted to get the other miraculouses, believe me.”  
  
“So, does this mean that the whole rule of not revealing our identities is only for protecting the miraculouses?”  
  
“ _Only?!_ ” Plagg spotted sarcastically. “And who will bear the responsibility for immature teenagers when they’ll know about each other?”  
  
“I’m not immature!” Adrien protested.  
  
“Right, kid… Just an emotionally unstable teenager in the middle of a hormonal tempest…”  
  
“You’ve just said I’m the embodiment of altruist!”  
  
“The one doesn’t preclude the other.” Plagg replied wisely. “I don’t want to remind you all times when you acted stupid.”  
  
“Like what?”  
  
“You make me kick you when you’re down…” kwami said wryly. “Let it be. Just imagine that you know Ladybug’s identity when Paris was flooded by…”  
  
“Siren.” Adrien finished the sentence.  
  
“Exactly. You wanted to give up your miraculous! You made me tell you… er…” Plagg hesitated, but they both knew how important for them that moment had been. “Uhm… So… What was I talking about?”  
  
“OK, OK…” Adrien muttered. “I’ve got your point. But you must know, and Marinette must know that too, that I’ll do everything for her. And I’ll never let anyone hurt her!”  
  
“In my opinion you should tell her that. Clearly. My cat’s six sense tells me about some problems ahead.”  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“If she saw the same pictures that you’ve just seen, she had to figure out that you’re Cat Noir.”  
  
“That makes things even easier… I don’t have to tell her that.”  
  
“Well…” Plagg wasn’t convinced. “You haven’t been successful in coming to an agreement so far…”  
  
“This time we’ll be. Hide, let’s go upstairs!” Adrien ordered and quickened.  
  
Marinette opened the door almost immediately after his knocking. But instead of expected hugs, he got an awkward smile from her. Did she always need a rain to forget about her shyness?  
  
“Hi…” he whispered with a smile.  
  
“H-Hi…” she stuttered. “Le-Let’s go upstairs be-before my parents get you…”  
  
She took his hand and led him to her room. When he closed a trapdoor behind them, he confessed:  
  
“Your mom _already_ got me.”  
  
Marinette turned around immediately and stared at him in horror.  
  
“Did you…?” she began but couldn’t finish that question.  
  
“Yes, I saw those pictures. And yes, I figured out.” He confirmed. If Plagg had told him that she’d probably guessed the truth, there was no sense in pretending he didn’t know.  
  
“But we’re not allowed to know…” she whispered.  
  
“I haven’t said anything…” Adrien smiled, making a step towards her.  
  
“But…”  
  
“You haven’t said anything either…” he made another step.  
  
“But…”  
  
“Nothing’s changed. Ladybug will keep rejecting Cat Noir. Now I can’t even blame her. Cat Noir had no chance comparing to _me_ …” he joked in a self-confident tone, as Cat Noir used to do in front of Ladybug. Marinette couldn’t help rolling her eyes. He laughed. “It would by much easier if you told me who’s your crush.” He added.  
  
“Stop joking about that! It’s a serious breach of the principles!”  
  
“How do you know what are those principles?”  
  
“Ti-Tikki told me that _no one_ can know my identity.” She whispered.  
  
“Including your partner you should trust with your life?”  
  
“I… don’t know…”  
  
“Us against the world, remember?”  
  
“Yes...” she smiled.  
  
“So, let’s talk to Master Fu.”  
  
“You _know_ him?!” she exclaimed in astonishment, but he only laughed.  
  
“Not only you have secrets, Purrincess…”  
  
She flushed when she heard the nickname that Cat Noir had given her. Her blush deepened when she noticed that he had been standing just before her.  
  
“I told you once that you’d fall for me as soon as you get known who I am…” he whispered in her ear, embracing her.  
  
“I hate when you’re right!” she murmured in his shirt.  
  
“Not true…” he smiled and kissed her.  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile Sabine Cheng was sitting downstairs with her cup of green tea. She reached for her phone and chose someone named “Uncle” to send him a message: ‘ _Mission accomplished_ ’…


	17. My dream

“So, how did you figure out?” Adrien asked, breaking the kiss.  
  
“What about you?” She asked him back.  
  
“I asked first.” He didn’t let her avoid to answer his question.  
  
She sighed and slipped out his embraces. Then she took his hand and led him to the balcony. She felt a bit more comfortable there – with less chances for eavesdropping by her parents. Not that she suspected her parents to do so, but all those things she had heard from her mom an hour before, she could expect a little more control from their side.  
  
“Just don’t forget yourself and don’t sit on a railing!” she joked when they went outside. Adrien looked at her amused and laughed. Then he stood next to her at the railing.  
  
“So?” he reminded her his question, and she blushed. She sighed and took a shy glance at him.  
  
“First, my mom showed me the picture when we were wearing some rags.” She said finally. “I couldn’t believe we put on something like that! Then I saw a few pictures where we acted like… uhm… like we were more… uhm… intimate… You know… As if we felt… As if _I felt_ quite comfortable with you. I mean… It was obvious that we were embarrassed, but by parents not by us. I saw kind of connection between us. Do you know what I mean?” She looked at him uncertain.  
  
“Perfectly, so far.” He smiled.  
  
“Then there were those photos before we kissed – when you look at me as if you wanted to ask me for permission…” she whispered and he ran out of breath. Hadn’t he thought exactly the same?!  
  
“How do you know that?” escaped from him.  
  
“Cat Noir would look at me like that…” she confessed and he felt hot. “Then I saw the last picture… And I realised that there was no way that I kissed Cat Noir within an hour if I kissed you first. Unless… _You were_ Cat Noir…”  
  
“It seems that we both thought the same…” Adrien whispered. “And… What did you do next? Your mom told me that your reaction was a bit unexpected.”  
  
“She said so?” Marinette glanced at him embarrassed.  
  
“She used ‘surprising’ to describe it…” he remembered and laughed when he saw her blush.  
  
“At first I couldn’t believe what I saw. You know… That we were kissing… It is quite possible that at the moment I was watching it I wanted to vanish into thin air. Or literally hide under the table. A moment later I realised that you must be Cat Noir and probably I panicked a little…”  
  
“I wish I could know some details!” He grinned like Cheshire Cat.  
  
“I’ll die first…” she muttered, and he burst out laughing.  
  
“What would I do without you, Princess?” he asked, embracing her.  
  
“At least I can tell you who I’ve kissed…” she revealed suddenly.  
  
“Really?” he was surprised. “Why did you change your mind?”  
  
“Well, because it was _you._ ” She admitted.  
  
“Me? How?”  
  
“I kissed you, silly. As Ladybug.”  
  
“Oh, right! That was the other kiss I don’t remember…” he recalled the picture of Ladybug kissing Cat Noir that he had seen during the interview with Nadja Chamack.  
  
“My poor sunshine!” she stroked his cheek. “It’s not fair, right? Your dream comes true and you don’t remember it…”  
  
“You’re talking about me or you, M’lady?” he smiled.  
  
“This time it’s about you, Kitty.”  
  
“My dream is coming true right now and I’m remembering all the details.” He replied softly.  
  
“Really? What’s the dream?”  
  
“You’re my dream.”  
  
“Yeah, I know…” she sighed and put her head on his shoulder. “You’ve been saying this for months…”  
  
“No, Marinette. _Not Ladybug_ is my dream. _You are._ ” He corrected her, guessing what she had meant.  
  
“How’s that?” she looked up. “You didn’t know?”  
  
“How could I know? Your mom showed me the pictures just moments ago. I hadn’t known before I saw the photographs.”  
  
“So… So you didn’t hear me behind those skips?”  
  
“What skips?”  
  
“Those in rear of the Montparnasse Tower.”  
  
“When?”  
  
“Just after we defeated Oblivio.” She replied, freeing herself from his embraces. She leaned against the railing and explained: “I detransformed behind the skips and then talked to Tikki. When I came out there I ran into you. You began acting weird after that moment. I wasn’t sure if you’d heard anything, but today everything became clear. When my mom showed me our photographs and I figured out that you’re Cat Noir, I already knew why you – as Adrien – were so intimidated around me.”  
  
He was listening her explanation and couldn’t believe what he heard.  
  
“You’re totally wrong!” he protested, standing face to face with her and staring at her with sparkling eyes. “You think I was embarrassed because I learned that you’re Ladybug? You think I kissed you yesterday, because I knew I was kissing Ladybug? You think that I told you that I liked you because I knew I was saying that to Ladybug?”  
  
“Didn’t you?” she glanced at him uncertain.  
  
“Marinette… It’s the greatest nonsense you’ve ever said!” he exclaimed and took her hands into his.  
  
“I strongly advise you not to offend me!” she glared at him.  
  
“I can’t let you say such things about yourself!” he stated firmly. “All I’ve done or said since yesterday concerned _you_ as Marinette! I admit, that weird e-mail was a reason. And honestly, I still have no idea why I sent it to myself. I guess I was so impressed by you that I didn’t want to lose a chance to know you better.”  
  
“Didn’t you write there a hint that I’m Ladybug?” she asked suspiciously.  
  
“Why don’t you want to accept the facts?! No, I didn’t write any details about your identity. I don’t know why. Maybe I knew it’s forbidden to reveal our identities to each other? Or maybe I didn’t want to influence myself? But I enclosed your picture to that e-mail. I took a photo here in your bedroom. You look outside with that special face you usually have as Ladybug when you plan the fight. That was my proof who you are.”  
  
“So, you _knew!_ ”  
  
“I opened the file after talking to your mom. Before that I’d treated that e-mail as a spam.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“I wrote there that I was wearing an old poncho found in a trash. It was highly impossible. But then I saw the pictures your mom had taken and I had to believe it was true.”  
  
“Yeah, those ponchos killed me!” Marinette laughed suddenly. “How it happened that we came here wearing such rags?”  
  
“According to my e-mail you talked me into this. And I agreed. See? I was impressed by _you_ , Marinette. Not by Ladybug.”  
  
“So… So you like _me?_ ” she asked finally.  
  
“I’ve been repeating this since yesterday!” he laughed. “I’ll start suspect you’re asking me on purpose, because you like hearing this.”  
  
“I do like hearing this.” She admitted with a smile. “But I’m not asking on purpose. Just… It’s hard to believe that…”  
  
“I suggest to believe that soon, because it’s not going to change. Sooner you get used to that, better for you.”  
  
“Get used to what?”  
  
“To me holding your hand. To me gazing on your face with admiration. To me impressed by all your ideas…” he listed, and she blushed. “And from time to time I’m going to kiss you. In front of people!”  
  
“Why it’s so easy for you?”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Saying such words…”  
  
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Just… It comes from my heart. I can’t hide it. Maybe this is the reason why Cat Noir was repeating his confessions over and over again.”  
  
“Because you couldn’t hide your feelings to Ladybug? What happened with them? Disappeared? You’re a bit inconstant in your feelings, Kitty…”  
  
“Quite the opposite, Princess… Ladybug is like a bonus pack. I still love only you.”  
  
“You lo… Love?” she spotted.  
  
“Of course I love! Oh… I really can’t help hiding my feelings…” he whispered pretending being frightened by this discovery.  
  
Marinette only giggled and climbed on her tiptoes. After this confession – the “L” word was a serious declaration, wasn’t it? – she had to kiss him.  
  
“If they keep that pace, tomorrow there will be their wedding…” Plagg murmured critically.  
  
“And children the next day…” Tikki added that made Plagg chortle.  
  
But neither Adrien nor Marinette paid any attention to them and kept kissing.


	18. Uncle

“We have to go to Master Fu.” Marinette said suddenly.  
  
Adrien looked at her a bit dizzy. How was it possible that he was still walking in the clouds while she was already standing on the ground?  
  
“I start being afraid that you don’t reciprocate even a half of my feelings.” He muttered with reproach.  
  
“Excuse me!” she exclaimed indignant.  
  
“Just think about it. Since yesterday it’s me who repeats confessions, kisses, hugs… Of course, you don’t seem to be too much reluctant …” he added and she glared at him as Ladybug had done so many times before. “But I feel like there’s a kind of asymmetry in our relationship.”  
  
“Re-Relationship?!” she stuttered.  
  
“If I’m moving too fast, just stop me.” He stated, and both kwamis – hidden in a corner – exchanged amused glances. Tomorrow wedding was definitely in the air. “Or at least tell me, what I’m doing wrong…”  
  
“Adrien…” Marinette whispered. “It’s not so easy. Just try to understand. You have been my crush for almost two years. All this time, every evening I’ve been dreaming about such things like we’re doing now. Believe me, it isn’t easy to accept it when it’s so much and so intensive. I still feel like it was a dream…”  
  
“Like yesterday?” he smiled.  
  
“Kind of…” she blushed.  
  
“I liked that.”  
  
“Really?”  
  
“You were… uhm… more at ease, I think.” He explained. “I feel like I intimidate you or something… And when you’re Ladybug, you’re always focused on the task. What should I do to let you be yourself?”  
  
“How do you know what I am when I’m myself?” she asked suspiciously.  
  
“Er… I spied on you recently.” He admitted embarrassed a little. “I know that you caught me once or twice, so I had to be more careful. Finally, I noticed that you behave differently, when I’m not around you. More naturally. Like yesterday in the rain, when you thought it was a dream. I can’t count on a rain every day. So, my question is: what else can I do?”  
  
“I think that knowing that you’re Cat Noir can help… A little…” she winked at him.  
  
“That’s what I’m talking about!” he grinned seeing she was back.  
  
“I’ll try. All I have to do is to put you off the pedestal.” She chuckled. “Now, when I know more about you it shouldn’t be hard.”  
  
“I’m afraid I’ll regret soon that I asked you to be yourself…” he joked and embraced her tightly.  
  
“Too late, Kitty!” she climbed her tiptoes and kissed him quickly. “And now, we _really_ have to go to Master Fu!”  
  
“Your Ladybug is showing, M’Lady!” he warned her.  
  
“I can’t help it, Adrien. Somewhere at the bottom of my mind I feel that we’ve breached some principles. I’ll calm down as soon as I learn what those rules are and if we can know our identities. Or rather what we should do when we’ve already known about each other.”  
  
“According to Plagg, all the risk lies in hormones.”  
  
“What?!” she burst out laughing.  
  
“As an emotionally unstable teenager in love I can start a worldwide crisis…”  
  
“Not worldwide…” Plagg murmured under his breath and Tikki glanced at him amused. “I didn’t place such high hopes on that kid…” he added quickly to cover his emotion.  
  
“I hope Master Fu won’t take away our miraculouses.” Marinette confessed. “In that case I would choose forgetting everything again.”  
  
“You like being Ladybug so much?” Adrien teased.  
  
“I love Tikki so much… I don’t want to lose her.”  
  
After those words a little red bullet flew through the air and a second later the red kwami was snuggling to Marinette’s cheek.  
  
“I can see it’s mutual…” Adrien muttered, feeling a hint of jealousy. Not only of Marinette’s cheek, but also of that connection between his girlfriend and her kwami. Even though he knew that Plagg was very attached to him, such snuggling was possible only as a last resort.  
  
“Stop complaining, kid…” Plagg muttered, flying closer to his holder.  
  
He didn’t snuggle – oh no! Thankfully, he still had his pride! – but landed on the boy’s head and ruffled his hair. Adrien smiled under his breath. Any jealousy was pointless, indeed.  
  
“All right! You’ve convinced me.” Adrien said finally to Marinette. “Are we going now or after dinner?”  
  
“I’m not sure…” she sighed. “I’ll ask my mom.”  
  
“You’re going to tell her about the Great Guardian?!”  
  
“Of course not, silly!” she laughed. “I’ll ask her if we can go out for a while. I’m not going to tell her _where_ we’re going.”  
  
“You can do that?”  
  
“Sure.” She replied, then realised suddenly, why it was new to him: “Oh… You probably must tell where you’re going every single time… Have you got already your own GPS transmitter under your skin?” she looked at him sideways.  
  
“I don’t know…” he answered in a serious tone. “I wouldn’t be surprised. My father always knows where I am. I mean, where Adrien is. So, maybe I don’t have a transmitter. Unless Cat Noir’s costume jams the GPS signal…” he wondered, and Marinette hugged him tight.  
  
“That was a joke!” she muttered in his shirt. “Only a joke… It’s terrible that you took it seriously!”  
  
“A joke! Of course…” he sighed. His heart was pounding in his chest, as he was so moved by what she did right now. Then he heard muffled _‘I love you, Adrien…’_ and he smiled and whispered: “That’s good, Princess. I’ve already been afraid that you don’t…”  
  
“Plagg? Are you crying?” Tikki asked quietly.  
  
“I never cry!” the black kwami growled in reply. “Can we go already?!” he asked louder.  
  
“Yes, we should!” Marinette agreed. “Or we missed dinner.”  
  
They went downstairs, holding their hands. This time it was natural and comfortable when their palms fitted perfectly to each other. As if they were made for each other.  
  
Marinette stopped in front of the door to the bakery and before she stepped inside, she took a glance at Adrien. Then she smiled and went in.  
  
“Mom? We’d like to…” but the question died in her mouth.  
  
At the table, next to Sabine Cheng there was Master Fu. Sitting with a cup of tea.


	19. The sign of the Dragon

Marinette was staring at Master Fu with her eyes wide open and couldn’t formulate even one sentence that would have any sense. Even such a simple and natural one that Adrien said:  
  
“Good afternoon, sir. We were just coming to see you.”  
  
“In that case it’s good that I’ve come here.” Master Fu smiled to both teenagers. “We saved some time.”  
  
“Uhm…” Marinette cut in, seeing a main complication around. “Mom?”  
  
“Yes, darling?” Sabine glanced at her daughter with a knowing smile.  
  
“How do you know Mas… Mr. Chen?” Marinette asked unsure how much she could say, so just in case she used a fake name of the Great Guardian.  
  
“That’s a long story…” Mom laughed. “Would you like to join us?”  
  
“J-Join?” Marinette stuttered.  
  
Adrien took her hand and led her towards the table. When Marinette took a seat, he sat down next to her and squeezed her palm to comfort her. He didn’t know what was happening here but he was sure that it was way more shocking for her than for him.  
  
“I’ll make some tea…” Mrs. Cheng stood up, but Master Fu stopped her.  
  
“Tea can wait, Sabine. We have more important things to discuss.”  
  
Marinette exchanged glances with Adrien. It was obvious that her mom knew Master Fu quite well. She hoped that someone would explain the secret soon.  
  
“Yes, Ladybug. I know your mother.” Master Fu began and Marinette gasped when she heard what he called her. So? Was it a well-known fact already? “Sabine used to be my best student.”  
  
A student?! Marinette looked like she was about to faint. Adrien glanced at her sideways and was so sorry for her. It was too much for one day: learning about him being Cat Noir, seeing all those crazy photographs made by her mom, listening to his confessions and his reproach that she didn’t return them, hearing him saying _‘I love you’_ … And now she just learnt that her mom knew Master Fu and – probably – her secret identity.  
  
He let her hand go, but only to embrace her. She put her head instinctively on his shoulder and took his other hand. As if she was afraid that she’d fall under this hail of shocking news.  
  
“We’d appreciate some details…” Adrien said, looking at Master Fu. “Maybe in a logical order. I have to admit that this situation is quite surprising, and Marinette needs some time. And information.”  
  
Mrs. Cheng smiled with understanding. She felt warmth in her heart when she saw how tender Adrien was for her daughter. Could any mother want anyone better for her child?  
  
“Why did you call me Ladybug, Master?” Marinette asked quietly, when she regained her composure. “Isn’t it a secret anymore?”  
  
“It _still is_ a secret, but not for everyone.”  
  
“Why _now_?”  
  
“I’ve told you once that it’s a right time for everything, remember?” Master Fu smiled meaningfully, reminding her a day, when she had asked him to let Cat Noir into a secret.  
  
“Cooking noodles?” she smiled back.  
  
“Exactly!” Wang Fu laughed with relief. “This is the right time for another part of noodles. Or if you’d prefer – for another cup of tea. No one can prepare better tea than your mother.”  
  
“How do you know each other, by the way?” Marinette asked suspiciously, glancing at her mom and the Great Guardian.  
  
“Well… When I was your age… uhm…” Mrs. Cheng hesitated and looked uncertain at Master Fu, but when he nodded, she continued: “I was a miraculous holder.”  
  
“You were a superheroine?!” Marinette exclaimed in shock.  
  
“Yes, I was.” Sabine confirmed. “My kwami called Longg and he was related to the Miraculous of Dragon. That was a coincidence, because as you know perfectly, I was born in the year of the Dragon. That’s exceptional to be born in such time… Well… I was called Dragon Lady. I could do miracles with fire. Oh, I miss Longg so much. We had a special bond.”  
  
“It wasn’t a coincidence, Sabine.” Master Fu explained. “When someone is born in the year of the Dragon, they always have a special bong with this particular miraculous.”  
  
“What happened that you aren’t a holder anymore?” Marinette asked.  
  
“I faced new challenges, darling.” Mom replied. “I got married, then I became a mother. I was responsible for you and your dad. I couldn’t risk my life… Besides… Tough times were over, I wasn’t needed anymore. I could withdraw. It was different then – Internet wasn’t so common. People didn’t know me. After some time no one remembered Dragon Lady.”  
  
“That’s terrible, mom! Why they forgot?! I’m sure they owe you so much! It’s unfair!”  
  
“Is it, darling? I don’t think so. I didn’t want to be popular. I had a mission to keep citizens safe. Should we inform them about all hidden dangers? Why should they panic or be frightened? Wouldn’t it be better to let them live safe and calm?” Sabine asked rhetorically and added: “I think it was easier then. No one followed me with a smartphone or camera, there was no possibility to record a film to publish it in the Internet… Nowadays, it’s much more difficult for you both.”  
  
“ _Both?!_ ” Marinette spotted. “So you know about _him_ as well?” she exclaimed pointing at Adrien.  
  
“Of course, I do, darling!” Mom laughed. “How couldn’t I?”  
  
“How long have you known, mom?”  
  
“It depends on what you mean. I’ve known about miraculouses and the Great Guardian for a long time. I was aware that Master Fu must know Ladybug and Cat Noir’s identities since he had given them the miraculouses. What about you, dear? Well… I had my suspicions but I wasn’t sure. Until you came here, both in these rags. I figured out immediately that they must have been your disguise, so you had to have your reasons to escape the Montparnasse Tower unnoticed. The more, it was obvious that you didn’t remember anything, yet you tried to keep Tom and me as far from the danger as possible. That was something the real superheroes would do. And when you left to _recharge your phones_ …” here Sabine stopped for a moment and smiled meaningfully, that caused instant blush on both Marinette’s and Adrien’s face. “Master Fu called me. He was concerned because he’d lost contact with Ladybug and Cat Noir, so he was looking for help. I calmed him down by saying that they came here and they’d contact him soon. That’s the whole story, darling.”  
  
“So, that’s why you chose me, Master?” Marinette asked the Guardian directly. “Because I’m my mother’s daughter?”  
  
“No, Marinette!” Wang Fu denied. “Relatives don’t influence the choice. I admit I was going that day to Sabine to ask her for help in finding candidates for Ladybug and Cat Noir. I lost contact with teenagers so I didn’t know who I could trust. Then I ran into you and I knew instantly that you’d be a great holder for the Miraculous of Ladybug. _After_ that – _not before_ – I discovered whose daughter you are.”  
  
“So… What now?” Marinette asked looking at him uncertain.  
  
“First of all, we cannot let Sabine be akumatised.” The Great Guardian said in a serious tone. “You know too much about me, Ladybug and Cat Noir, Sabine. I think… I think it’s a right time to revive an old friendship…”  
  
Saying that he put a hexagonal wooden box on the table.


	20. The Epilogue

The sun was setting, spreading an evening afterglow over Parisian rooftops. On the top of the dome of the Sacré-Cœur Basilica there were sitting two tiny people – a Chinese man in a green armour and a non la hat and a Chinese woman in a fire-like qipao. They stayed unnoticed by tourists focused on a picturesque view of the city, ignoring the beauty of the Basilica behind them.  
  
“I’ll miss Wayzz…” Jade Turtle admitted.  
  
“You still have time to change your mind, Master.” Dragon Lady whispered.  
  
“No, Sabine. I’m too old. It’s time to retire. To find my Marianne. The Miraculouses will be safe with you. You’ll be a perfect Great Guardian. You were born in the year of the Dragon. Leaving the Miraculouses in your hands is the best I could ever hope for.”  
  
“But there’s so much to learn!”  
  
“We’re going to continue your training, Sabine. As I mentioned before – you used to be my best student…”

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *This time it is the end of this story (yet I’m not saying ‘no’ for a sequel… Someday…)


End file.
